Answer:
The wind is starting to blow stronger, and when you’re riding in a basket under a hot air
balloon, just 400 feet above ground, that’s not necessarily a good thing. Keith Rodriguez looks
to the horizon and squints. He had planned to take off from Scioto Downs, a horse racetrack
south of Columbus, Ohio, fly a few miles north, and land his balloon in a barren cornfield next
to his pickup truck.
Then the wind changed. Instead of a light breeze from the south, now Rodriguez’s bright red
balloon is getting hit by stronger, colder winds from the west. He has plenty of propane fuel in
his tank—he probably could ride the wind halfway to Pennsylvania. But that would be
dangerous. Rodriguez’s choice of landing sites just became very limited. As the balloon
switches direction and floats east, everything below becomes a wide carpet of suburban
sprawl—big‐box stores, major highways, strip malls. Beyond the stores lie forests.
Explanation:
