The Balloon Adventure: Chapter 3 – The Descent!

Are you ready to travel with our 4 friends again? Where do you think they will end up?   I couldn’t help but put some Hot Air Balloon quotes on here, since today is Tuesday. Tuesdays are my quotes day, but I won’t delay the suspense for you of seeing what happens next,  to our 4 Adventurers! I understand how being in suspense can be hard! I may have some trouble waiting at times. 🙂 I have to admit that it is rather nice this time posting a story where I know what comes next! As most of you know, that is not usually the case when I get Colin’s stories.

 

The Balloon Adventure: Chapter 3 – The Descent!

The Man-Servant looked around for a cord, and found one that went right up and inside the balloon to the very top. When he pulled on it, he noticed a flap open in the top of the balloon, and he felt the balloon lurch just a little. He was then aware of a sensation of slowly going down.

“We’re on our way back down to earth guys!” Then he turned to Odessa. “How long have you known about the parachute vent cord?”  Odessa shook her head. “You have no idea just how much I know about different things, but you have to ask because I am not a mind reader.”  The Man-Servant looked thoughtful. “So all the time that we were out of control, you knew about the parachute vent cord?”  “Yes of course” said Odessa. The Man-Servant was getting flustered again. “So why did it take you this long to tell me about it?”

Now it was Odessa’s turn to get flustered. “I have had enough of this uncalled for verbal abuse! You kept going on about everything else, so how was I supposed to know that you wanted this balloon to go down? I am going to fly away for a while now to burn off some frustrations but, before I go, you might want to practice using that cord because you are going to need it when you get closer to the ground! Bye!” As Odessa took flight, the Man-Servant called after her “Why would I need to do that?” Odessa replied “You’ll find out!” and went out of sight beneath the basket as she headed for the ground.

The Man-Servant had some snacks in his pocket, which he shared with Jaxon and Dewey. All three of them looked over the side of the basket, and could clearly a patchwork quilt of fields. They were losing height quite fast now, and the Man-servant was wondering how best to handle the landing. Perhaps they should all jump out just before the basket hit the ground, but what speed could they be doing when they hit the ground? The Man-Servant thought to himself “How can I slow this balloon down?

He decided to see what would happen if he used the parachute vent cord to close the hole in the top of the balloon and, not too surprisingly, the balloon slowly decreased its rate of descent. It then seemed to be stable for a while before starting to go upwards again. The Man-Servant soon found that he could control the balloons rate of descent, but could do nothing about its speed which, as they were getting closer to the ground, seemed to be quite fast!

Suddenly, Odessa was once again flying alongside them. “Hey Man-Servant, are you in a race or something?” The Man-Servant looked across at Odessa. “I am so glad to see you! How do I slow this thing down?” Odessa just looked at him “I have no idea!” she said. “But if you guys can all get together in there, and then move around as one, you can influence the direction that this balloon is going. I would suggest that you practice right now, because you’re only about 100ft off the ground, and traveling at a good speed. I would suggest that you aim for that haystack ahead of you, and just off to your left!”