The most visual example of Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s unusual campaign style in his bid for the Republican presidential nod flew over the Baltimore area Thursday in the form of a 200-foot-long airship adorned with the candidate’s name and a simple request: Google Ron Paul.

After reading about the blimp’s flight plans online, some Paul supporters drove hours to the Harford County Airport near Churchville, Md., to witness two launches of its multi-state promotional tour.

The Online NewsHour rode along as the blimp took to the skies for three hours to promote Paul’s candidacy and his small-government platform. The dirigible drifted over the Charm City’s skyline and suburbs, displaying its gigantic “Who is Ron Paul? Google Ron Paul” and ‘Ron Paul Revolution’ banners. The blimp rides like a boat, tipping and rolling with the wind. It is also unpressurized. With easily (and safely) opened sliding windows, the blimp offers a chilly ride in the December air.

Paul blimp operatives broadcast streaming video from the aircraft, while a Paul-supporting lobbyist hosted live interviews for a Ron Paul Internet radio station. Hundreds of feet beneath the blimp, traffic slowed to a crawl as the craft went into hover mode above the freeway during afternoon rush hour for maximum exposure.

The blimp is a result of the entrepreneurial and creative endeavors of Paul’s passionate and Web-savvy supporters who, unsatisfied with their underdog candidate’s showing in the national media and polls, created a company outside of the campaign to rent and fly the blimp, which costs $350,000 a month to operate, across the East Coast as the primary elections near.

Paul supporters Trevor Lyman and Elijah Lynn hashed out the blimp idea on a Ron Paul Web forum over the past several months. They then created Liberty Political Advertising as the vehicle for funneling unrestricted cash donations into funding a flying billboard for the Paul campaign.

Lyman also helped mastermind the two ‘money bomb’ fundraising days that raised more than $10 million for the Paul campaign in the fourth quarter. The Dec. 16 “Tea Party” fundraising push hauled in $6 million, the most money raised in a single day in American political campaign history.

Lyman’s unconventional, grassroots approach to promoting Paul outside the auspices of his national campaign has defined the anti-war Republican’s bid for the presidency. Despite his back-of-the-pack showing in every poll during the primary campaign, his supporters will spread Paul’s message to anyone who will listen.

The inventive, somewhat decentralized strategies that Paul supports have been used to spread his message are tied to Paul’s libertarian, market-based political ideology.

“He wants the markets to come up with the ideas and to feed the needs that are out there … so he let it alone and provided the message and focused on that,” Lyman said during an interview aboard the blimp. “We took that message and amplified it through our efforts. I think it has been a great illustration of allowing the markets to do it, (to let) the entrepreneurial spirit to take over.”

The ride for the sometimes-derided blimp project hasn’t always gone smoothly. The fickle winter weather dictates the areas where it can fly. On Friday, a planned northbound trip toward New York was scuttled when three cords that secured a massive banner broke, forcing the zeppelin back to Elizabeth City, N.C., for repairs.