Sometime in the 1960s, a young Larry Walters of North Hollywood, California went to an Army Navy surplus store.

While perusing the items for sale, he came upon something “inflatable” that would not only supply the “lift” for the defining moment of his life, but would stoke the flame of his imagination for the next twenty years — until this moment actually came.

On Thursday, July, 8 1982.

That day local commercial airline pilots reported an unidentified flying object over LAX airspace. At first, they had no idea what it was. They thought maybe it was a small craft? Perhaps someone skydiving?

A few moments later, they figured it out.

It was Larry. In his lawn chair that he bought for $10. Tethered to 40-something weather balloons with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a CB radio, sunglasses, a bottle of Coke and a BB gun.

He was flying. At 16,000 feet over the greater Los Angeles, California area.

*To put this into perspective the Sears Tower is 1,451 feet tall, the maximum altitude for a Cessna plane is 13,500 ft. and the highest Carl ever got up in UP was 9,700 feet*

Larry was cold, sunburned and scared.

Check out the video above for the entire story and find out what happened to Larry.