Balloon Race

Even though the Montgolfier brothers found watching life go by more appealing from a balloon high in the sky in 1783, the sport of hot-air ballooning didn't get off the ground, so to speak, until 1906 when an American publisher offered a trophy for the team winning a balloon race he organized. An American team won that race in Paris 84 years ago. It was the first international balloon race, and to commemorate it, the Great Eastern Balloon Association will hold a race at 5 p.m. Saturday at the South Jersey Regional Airport in Lumberton.

Some time today, Bob Dicks' hot air balloon will chase another balloon across a quiet sky that stretches over the Roman ruins, the rolling vineyards and the rugged factories near Metz, France. When he catches up with the elusive front balloon, Dicks will drop a bean bag 2,000 feet, aiming for a huge canvas X that punctuates an otherwise verdant landscape. After the drop, Dicks and his balloon will descend into the Airport of Lorraine and await the results. Dicks of Holland won't be the only balloonist dropping bean bags from the French sky. Nearly 800 balloonists from five continents are floating over Metz in the largest international balloon races ever held.

With sushi, string bands and balloons that sailed on brisk winds in Center City, Philadelphians continued to celebrate the Fourth of July yesterday in festivities that climaxed with a fresh round of fireworks at Independence Mall. Mummers strutted down Chestnut Street toward Independence Hall while tourists and residents munched on delicacies at food festivals at Penn's Landing and in Old City. In the evening, 23 hot-air balloons chased one another across the sky as the 11th Annual Great Philadelphia Balloon Race floated from Eakins Oval on the Parkway to wherever the winds were blowing.

THE FOURTH OF JULY, a holiday of images and symbols, is observed in many ways in these parts, one of them a balloon race starting near Eakins Oval. Last evening at 6:30, 13 big boys became lighter than air and tore down the Parkway for faraway landings. One of the them, caught with a long-range lens, seemed to pass under Billy Penn's hat.

Constance "Connie" Wolf never did ride the jet stream across the Atlantic in the enclosed gondola of a helium-filled balloon, but it may have been the only dream she left unfulfilled in the 89 years she had before her death yesterday at Suburban Woods Nursing Home in Norristown. For more than 50 years, with her balloon records and her love of parties and people, Mrs. Wolf was a symbol in Philadelphia of spirit, independence, daring and grace. She was the first woman to cross the Alps in a balloon - rising high above the Jungfrau in minus-30-degree temperatures from Murren in Switzerland to the Italian border one day in 1962.

As far as Lana Stern was concerned, the balloon race, the celebration of public art, the $100-a-plate dinner and anything else shoehorned into the "Welcome America!" celebration didn't mean squat. All that mattered to the twitchy 4-year-old was that she sat in the driver's seat of the newly revamped SEPTA bus at the Please Touch Museum. "I'm more excited about the museum than I am the convention center," said her mother, Diane Stern, 45, of Upper Darby. "This is for the children, and they're more of a worthwhile investment than the politicians.

Deaths cast pall on balloon race ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Racers lifted off early Saturday in one of ballooning's most prestigious events but without two pilots considered among the fiercest competitors at the annual America's Challenge gas balloon race. Veteran pilots Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis are presumed dead after their balloon disappeared over the Adriatic Sea during a European race last month. "They'll definitely be in our thoughts, and we're wishing that they were here competing with us," said Troy Bradley, who is flying in this year's race and once spent six days in a gondola with Abruzzo on a trans-Atlantic flight.

The last time Judith Roznowski landed her hot-air balloon in Philadelphia, she was greeted with open arms - and sticky fingers. While participating in a July 7, 1990, balloon race from Philly to Camden, Roznowski and her husband, Drew - along with nine other teams of balloonists - were forced to land because of dying winds. The Roznowskis set down in a vacant lot at 7th and Oxford streets in North Philadelphia. As they tried to wrestle their six-story balloon under control, several people stole their camera, binoculars and two-way radio before police arrived.

By the end of last summer's Pennypack Park concert series, graffiti marred all sides of the band shell near the park entrance at Rhawn Street and Holmehurst Avenue. But this year the big bands, Mummers and other groups scheduled to play will stand on the stage in front of a mural of rolling hills and balloons. Just as teenagers apparently defaced the band shell originally, teenagers - though not the same ones - were responsible for the more attractive new art work. By the end of last week, advanced commercial art students from the Swenson Skills Center on Red Lion Road were 90 percent finished with painting the mural, at the request of park officials, said Arline Green, director of the school's art program.

Jim Duncan can blame his choice of an expensive hobby on the accidental conjunction of employment, geography and the prevailing winds. And maybe a little wanderlust. "Balloons used to fly over my house in the morning," said Duncan, then a construction worker living in Pennington and working for a man who also held a commercial balloon pilot's license. "He was training someone and asked me to help. That was 1979. "I was so fascinated that I started working for companies that had balloons.

Deaths cast pall on balloon race ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Racers lifted off early Saturday in one of ballooning's most prestigious events but without two pilots considered among the fiercest competitors at the annual America's Challenge gas balloon race. Veteran pilots Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer Davis are presumed dead after their balloon disappeared over the Adriatic Sea during a European race last month. "They'll definitely be in our thoughts, and we're wishing that they were here competing with us," said Troy Bradley, who is flying in this year's race and once spent six days in a gondola with Abruzzo on a trans-Atlantic flight.

"Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. " OK, so I wasn't strapped into a rocket ship of a race car at the brick starting line of the storied Indianapolis Motor Speedway, poised with 32 other drivers for the wave of the green flag. Along with a few dozen tourists, I was in a bus, ready to tour the famed oval at a top speed of 35 m.p.h., instead of the usual 200. And the words of Speedway board chair Mari Hulman George were recorded, as was the soundtrack of hungry 700-horsepower engines gunning for glory.

Constance "Connie" Wolf never did ride the jet stream across the Atlantic in the enclosed gondola of a helium-filled balloon, but it may have been the only dream she left unfulfilled in the 89 years she had before her death yesterday at Suburban Woods Nursing Home in Norristown. For more than 50 years, with her balloon records and her love of parties and people, Mrs. Wolf was a symbol in Philadelphia of spirit, independence, daring and grace. She was the first woman to cross the Alps in a balloon - rising high above the Jungfrau in minus-30-degree temperatures from Murren in Switzerland to the Italian border one day in 1962.

As far as Lana Stern was concerned, the balloon race, the celebration of public art, the $100-a-plate dinner and anything else shoehorned into the "Welcome America!" celebration didn't mean squat. All that mattered to the twitchy 4-year-old was that she sat in the driver's seat of the newly revamped SEPTA bus at the Please Touch Museum. "I'm more excited about the museum than I am the convention center," said her mother, Diane Stern, 45, of Upper Darby. "This is for the children, and they're more of a worthwhile investment than the politicians.

The last time Judith Roznowski landed her hot-air balloon in Philadelphia, she was greeted with open arms - and sticky fingers. While participating in a July 7, 1990, balloon race from Philly to Camden, Roznowski and her husband, Drew - along with nine other teams of balloonists - were forced to land because of dying winds. The Roznowskis set down in a vacant lot at 7th and Oxford streets in North Philadelphia. As they tried to wrestle their six-story balloon under control, several people stole their camera, binoculars and two-way radio before police arrived.

Jim Duncan can blame his choice of an expensive hobby on the accidental conjunction of employment, geography and the prevailing winds. And maybe a little wanderlust. "Balloons used to fly over my house in the morning," said Duncan, then a construction worker living in Pennington and working for a man who also held a commercial balloon pilot's license. "He was training someone and asked me to help. That was 1979. "I was so fascinated that I started working for companies that had balloons.

Even though the Montgolfier brothers found watching life go by more appealing from a balloon high in the sky in 1783, the sport of hot-air ballooning didn't get off the ground, so to speak, until 1906 when an American publisher offered a trophy for the team winning a balloon race he organized. An American team won that race in Paris 84 years ago. It was the first international balloon race, and to commemorate it, the Great Eastern Balloon Association will hold a race at 5 p.m. Saturday at the South Jersey Regional Airport in Lumberton.

Hot-air balloons race from Philadelphia to New Jersey every summer. They're not supposed to land in North Philadelphia, according to the race producer. "Generally speaking, the winds come from the west and southwest in Philadelphia, and we normally go into New Jersey," said a surprised Bob Waligunda, owner of Sky Promotions, and producer and organizer of the 15th annual Great Philadelphia Balloon Race. But Saturday night, the winds were blowing from the east - "kind of all over the place," Waligunda said.

City residents got an unexpected treat last night when weak winds deposited several hot-air balloons participating in the Great Philadelphia Balloon Race on playgrounds and parking lots. Hundreds of children clambered over the fence at the Richard Wright Elementary School to see close-up the big orange balloon that had drifted lazily overhead for a half-hour near 27th Street and Susquehanna Avenue. Pilot John Burns of Cinnaminson alighted, smiled and asked police: "I'm not parked illegally, am I?"

Some time today, Bob Dicks' hot air balloon will chase another balloon across a quiet sky that stretches over the Roman ruins, the rolling vineyards and the rugged factories near Metz, France. When he catches up with the elusive front balloon, Dicks will drop a bean bag 2,000 feet, aiming for a huge canvas X that punctuates an otherwise verdant landscape. After the drop, Dicks and his balloon will descend into the Airport of Lorraine and await the results. Dicks of Holland won't be the only balloonist dropping bean bags from the French sky. Nearly 800 balloonists from five continents are floating over Metz in the largest international balloon races ever held.