Balloons fill the sky at the Saturday evening launch of Balloons Over 66

[August 31, 2021]   On Saturday evening, the heat was still on, but when one could find a shady spot, there was enough of a breeze to keep cool. Fortunately, though there was a breeze, it was gentle enough that pilots had no concerns about taking to the skies for the Saturday evening balloon launch.

On Eighth Street, at the Apex Park owned by the city, the visitors gathered in large numbers to enjoy watching the pilots inflate their balloons and fly away to the north of the city.

The first balloon off the ground was Honest Abe, owned and flown by Seth Goodman. The Abe balloon was a special design Goodman had made while he was Mayor of the city of Lincoln. Since that time, he has purchased another balloon, Incognito. But one pilot cannot fly two balloons at once, so Incognito stayed hidden this past weekend.

But, those who are familiar with Goodman’s ballooning history may have noticed another balloon that lifted off from one of the other locations in town, but did a fly-by at Apex Park.

Goodman’s former balloon Done Deal was aloft with a new owner/pilot and a new name. Austin Hopp is now the owner of the old balloon, now named fittingly “Hoppin’ Around.”

Other balloons that lifted off after Goodman included Preston Gebhart’s Dream On, Greg Saul with Good and Plenty, Drifting Dolphins piloted by Kevin Heinzmann, Alex Jonard and Zee-nith, Tentai the Sequel flown by Jerry Garcia and Darrel Day with his balloon PiBall.

Apex park was a great spot to watch fly-bys on Saturday evening. In addition to seeing Hoppin Around, Yellow Cloud piloted by Danny Gebhart, Rid Conklin’s Sunkissed, Fire + Ice piloted by Andrew Robinson, Beau Soleil piloted by Rob Mezey and Justin Hoffman in Dreamer were spotted flying just to the east of the park heading northward out of the city.

[Nila Smith]