CARIBOU, Maine — As cluster balloonist Jonathan R. Trappe lifted off from the Sincock Street baseball field around 6:30 a.m. last Thursday, applause and encouraging words drifted up into the atmosphere with him — but
a couple positive messages cut through the morning fog with the unmistakably high-pitched tone of excited Caribou youngsters – Emma and Clare Kilcollins, 7 and 5 respectively, along with their friend Evan Rossignol, 7.
“Bye Jonathan!” they yelled simultaneously into the sky as a chorus.
“Look out in the boat, if you have to!” Evan shouted by himself, an afterthought to their group-cheering effort.
Even on Monday afternoon, four days after the launch, Emma was pretty sure that Mr. Trappe heard their goodbye, and explained why it was important that they bid him farewell that morning.
“So he felt like no matter what happens, he shouldn’t be scared and saying goodbye was a very important thing,” the 7-year-old said.
Emma, Clare and their mother, Mary Kilcollins, know some of the launch’s local organizers, and had been paying close attention to Trappe’s pending voyage over the last few months.
When dozens and dozens of volunteers flocked to the Soucie Memorial Sports Complex on the evening of Sept. 11, clad in boots and weather resistant attire to inflate the 370 helium balloons Trappe would need for his cluster balloon flight, the Kilcollins’ came out as well to view the pre-launch endeavor.
They stayed until about 10:15 that night – which was long enough for them to see rows upon rows of balloons take shape.
Mary wasn’t sure how enthusiastic the girls would be about getting up around 4:15 the following morning to make sure they saw the launch, but she said it was like waking them up to go to Disney World.
They piled into the vehicle and headed to the field; what they found was a very different scene than the one they’d left the night before. As expected, the long rows of single balloons were being assembled into clusters of about seven and affixed by long cords to the small yellow boat weighed down with bags of sand – each cluster of balloons hovering skyward as part of the biggest balloon bouquet imaginable. The craft was taking shape, at their 4:30 arrival, but wasn’t quite ready to be launched.
The family loaded back up into the vehicle and headed home for breakfast and to get ready for school.
“And we didn’t fall asleep at all!” said Clare.
They returned to the field around 5:30 and stayed until they bid Mr. Trappe farewell as he flew silently overhead and drifted into the clouds about an hour later.
“It was so fun going back and forth!” said Emma, describing the trio’s own little adventure as they saw the cluster balloonist off on his adventure.
Having seen both aspects of the launch – filling the balloons with helium and then collecting those balloons into the cluster – the girls explained that both scenes were pretty cool.
“I liked when it was a rainbow,” Clare said, referring to the colorful rows of inflated balloons waiting to be harvested by volunteers and added into the large cluster – which by itself was pretty neat. (Personally, her favorites were the blue and the purple balloons.)
But the absolute coolest part of the event – something Emma and Clare absolutely agreed on – was the launch.
“I like when he took off and he did his final wave,” Emma said. There were three kids in her class at school who also attended the launch, and Emma said they agreed that Trappe’s final wave was the best part.
Like the rest of the spectators, the girls watched the launch and pre-launch from outside the gated ball field on Sincock Street – but they did speculate days later as to what they’d have done if they were allowed to go down onto the field with the balloons.
Both girls said they’d like to talk with Mr. Trappe, but while Clare said she’d exited the gated area to watch Trappe fly out again from the hill overlooking the field, Emma said she would have tried to have an adventure of her own.
“I would have wanted to talk with that guy for a bit, and then started playing with my friend, and like ask them if me and Evan could hold on to two balloons, and then we would have flown into the air,” she said with a big grin on her face. (On Trappe’s website, clusterballoon.com, he clearly states that amateurs should not attempt any such voyage.)
The 7- and 5-year-old each knew quite a bit about Trappe’s travels, like that he landed in Canada – which is very far away – and Emma said that he wanted to go to England. (England was one of the countries Trappe could have landed in, but he wasn’t sure of where, specifically, across the Atlantic the winds would take him.)
“England is very far away, it’s like two or three days away,” Emma said.
As they’ve learned quite a bit about Trappe’s daring adventure, they have a couple of facts they think should be noted in the history books.
“What’s important that we know is when we found out on his tracking [GPS] that he landed and that he stayed with the moose and bears and stuff for overnight … and then the Canadian news CBC rescued him in a helicopter,” Emma said.
“And I was glad that he got saved,” Clare added with full sincerity.
Even though the cluster balloonist didn’t reach his intended destination across the Atlantic Ocean, the Kilcollins girls still thought his flight to Newfoundland, Canada was pretty amazing. In fact, they might consider flying off in a cluster balloon system like Trappe someday.
“I would, but I wouldn’t fly away to England like him. Probably just to like Mars Hill or somewhere not that far,” Emma said. Clare said she’d fly a cluster balloon setup to Canada, just like Trappe.
The cluster balloonist certainly has left quite the impression on these two girls, and if given the opportunity, Emma had a couple things she’d like to tell Mr. Trappe.
“Good job, congratulations, sorry that you didn’t get to England, and I hope you were safe from the bears.”
