Slow-Down During Morning Commute

As I was traveling down I-10 west towards downtown, yesterday morning, the traffic seemed to come to an unusually slow pace as I approached the 10-12 merge. I had noticed something in the sky a few miles back, but couldn't see anything now. Finally it appeared in front of me... a huge hot air balloon appeared to be dropping down onto the eastbound lane! I feared it would crash into the traffic, but suddenly it just stopped and hovered. The traffic began to slow even more as people were rubber-necking... I guess I'm guilty, too, especially since I got my Blackberry out and snapped this photo!