LEWISTON — Despite fog, rain and an uncooperative breeze during the launch windows throughout the Lewiston-Auburn Balloon Festival, two local balloonists each managed to get off the ground once.

“We had a really awesome flight,” said Jim Rodrigue of Androscoggin Balloon Adventures.

Jim Rodrigue of Lewiston flies away in his balloon Friday evening during the Lewiston-Auburn Balloon Festival at Simard-Payne Memorial Park in Lewiston. Rodrigue was the first pilot who decided to fly Friday evening. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Rodrigue said that on Friday evening there was a breeze that generally would have carried balloons from the field at Simard-Payne Park toward Lake Auburn.

For out-of-town balloonists, that was less than ideal, he said.

But Rodrigue said that when he spoke with the festival balloon meister, he decided that the wind was acceptable.

“This is all right for me,” he said. “I know the area.”

So Rodrigue busied himself preparing to take flight and never heard anything to indicate he shouldn’t go.

Rodrigue said he ascended and, as expected, was blown toward Lake Auburn and Taylor Pond.

He said that he popped up to a few thousand feet and got right where he wanted to be.

“We lollygagged up there for 15 or 20 minutes,” Rodrigue said, having a good time with his passengers.

Then he came down in a ballfield off Route 4, where he found a decent crowd waiting on the ground. He showed off the balloon there for half an hour, he said.

“It was an awesome flight,” Rodrigue said.

He said that another local balloonist also took off from the festival and landed in a nearby farm field. He spotted one other balloon that evening, unconnected to the festival, that had taken off from Lewiston’s Geiger Elementary School.

The difference for all three of them, Rodrigue said, is that they know the wind patterns around Lewiston and Auburn so they felt confident they could land safely. Balloonists from other places didn’t have the same background knowledge, he said, so they needed to play it safe.

Rodrigue said it “kind of sucks” the weather didn’t treat balloonists better for the festival, but it happens.

Jim Rodrigue of Lewiston flies over the Lewiston-Auburn Balloon Festival at Simard-Payne Memorial Park in Lewiston. Rodrigue was the first pilot who decided to fly Friday evening. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

He said in the early days of the festival, the weather was always a lot better. He said patterns have changed to make it more problematic.

But, Rodrigue said, there is a circuit of festivals that many balloonists follow that constrains the ability to change the dates for the one in Lewiston and Auburn. A different date would force some to choose where to go, he said, and it might mean fewer balloons in Maine.

He said he’s glad he managed to get off the ground.

“I only go up to have fun,” Rodrigue said, and he did just that.