Life on the farm

We went skydiving today! And what a rush it was.

I’ve been talking about going skydiving for quite some time now and so my friend and I decided to set a time and a date and do it. And when we were skyping with the kids last weekend and I was talking about it, William has always wanted to go and since it worked in his schedule he was also going. We were excited!

So it’s the morning of the Big Day! Car was packed with some camp chairs if we need them, a camera, some snacks and drinks, and a whole lot of adrenaline!

First things first. We met my friend in a nearby town and because we were meeting William at the airport we started to head south after picking up my friend. It was about a 3 hour trip and there wasn’t a dull time in the car talking about what we were going to do for our pictures and talking pretty confident about the whole thing. 

Our appointment was for 11:00 and we pulled into the business at 10:45 so it was going good so far and William wasn’t far behind us. 

Next thing to do is to check in. Well after about a million pages to sign and initial that basically no one is going to sue anyone – it was time to head to the training room for a video. Now my take away from this video is that you do not have to go through the jump if you don’t want to. OK, there was probably more to the video but that’s all what I heard. Oh yea, that you can not sue anyone if you die. But we were anxious to get started and was hoping that this video thing wasn’t going to take too long.

So now was the waiting game. We had to wait our turn and with finding out that they were short handed today it was one of those times when you tried to be very patient but still are about coming out of your skin with excitement. Good thing we had brought some chairs along, they sure came in handy today. 

As we watched the first groups of people I honestly couldn’t believe that we were there. I mean we’ve talked about it for years and now we were actually going to do this. Well we were hoping anyway that we wouldn’t chicken out.

And we laughed while we were waiting because Daryl made the comment that he watched so many times the parachutes being wrapped up that he almost could do it by himself. Now I do really trust Daryl for pretty much everything in our lives – but I think packing a parachute for me, well that’s kinda pushing it don’t you think? 

After waiting for quite awhile they called our names. We jumped up out of our seats like we were in grade school and we just got called to the blackboard. We were going to get fitted for our harnesses and hopefully get our 20 to 30 minute training that they mentioned when we signed up. First thing was to get instructed on how to learn how to get out of the airplane and jump. Sounds easy right? Now I don’t know if they thought that we knew what we were doing or if we just looked hopeless and they wanted to get our turn moving, but the training that my friend and I got was about 2 to 3 minutes. But I’m thinking I can remember this. Feet out the airplane door, pull feet back under the plane, hold onto your straps, jump out of the plane, get tapped on the shoulder, bend knees, arch back, head back, spread arms, look to the left, smile. OK got it!

And William was going to go after us and he said that his friends told him to remember everything that’s going on when you jump because it goes so fast. I thought to myself the only way to do this is to relax.

OK, feet out the airplane door, pull feet back under the plane, relax, hold onto your straps, jump out of the plane, relax, remember what you see and feel, get tapped on the shoulder, bend knees, arch back, head back, remember what you see and feel and relax spread arms, look to the left, and smile.

Next step on our adventure was to get on the airplane. Now I’ve been on my share of airplanes before but holy cow I’ve never been on an airplane like this! As us 4 sat on the floor of the plane with no room to spare and with small windows around us without much walls, I seriously felt like I was on a bomber airplane or something. And as the plane was going down the runway and into the air – we were off! Here we go! I knew that I couldn’t help smiling and after looking at my pictures later I was pretty much right with that statement. It was so very very cool though! The airplane was loud and I’m sure that the guys had harnesses on (I hope) because the one side of the airplane was pretty much gone and had a tarp on it to keep us in. Now were climbing and climbing up into the sky and you could feel the air getting colder as you climbed higher. Then as we’re watching we’re way above the clouds. Awesome!

Having a good time in the airplane

My guide said that he was going to lean out to see where we’re at to help the pilot know where we were going to jump so I was kinda ready when the tarp went up and because he leaned outside the plane … well so did I. I didn’t really notice that I was nervous about this until I started to get a cramp in my one leg because I had it braced against the wall of the plane. No way in heck I’m going to go out that plane sideways. I’m just saying!

After he found the best spot he said for me to swing my legs out the door and I’ll kind of hang there.

Swinging my legs out of the airplane – 7000 feet above the earth!

When I said that he was going to tap me when I should bend my knees, arch my back and the rest of my training he said no. That I should do this right away. Holy Crap! OK, bend knees, relax, have fun, remember, arch back, breath, look to the left.

Waiting for the first leap of faith

Oh heck – Just JUMP!  

Jump!

WOW!   That’s about all that I can say about that. I’m glad that William said to remember what it felt like because otherwise I think it might be too overwhelming. To me how it felt was like you were weightless and could see the whole earth in an instant. Now granted you couldn’t really see the whole earth, but while sitting outside the plane at 7000 feet and falling at the speed of 120 mph well it kind of felt like the whole earth.

What a great feeling!

Just hanging out above the clouds

The air was cool and it was really loud. You could feel any skin that you might have just flopping around in the air and I thought to myself that that’s not going to look too good on the pictures. When I was thinking about this it made me laugh and I guess I was pretty successful at the relaxing part of the whole thing. Now I don’t know how long we free fell but soon the parachute opened up and bam up into the sky we went. The air noise suddenly stopped and there was absolutely no noise at all. The air got warmer and it was really peaceful. My guide was called Junkyard dog and I think he could be a lot of fun. On the way down we did quite a bit of spinning which I absolutely loved and honestly I would have flipped upside down if it was allowed. I was pretty nervous about the landing but we landed just like butter! I’m telling you … butter! My friend landed soon after I did and we looked at each other and said we did it!

Next was William’s turn and he looked like a pro. His airplane was even smaller than ours which I couldn’t believe and I was anxious and excited for him to jump and see how he liked it. It takes about 20 minutes to climb the 7000 feet and I think he even went higher than that. The skydivers wear these altitude watches and for some reason on his video I thought he went even higher. I found out later that he did get to steer the parachute they used on his trip and for some reason they didn’t let me. I don’t know why 🙂 And how did William like it? Well he loved it I think even more than I did! 

Now that it’s all said and done I honestly loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat. I also was really grateful for Daryl hanging out for the whole day with us in the heat and taking pictures.

So cheers to all of us! We have officially been entered into the skydiving club!