We said our goodbyes to Megan and Sarah and that we were glad to see them, me meeting them for the first time, and that we had fun. We ate some granola bars and went downstairs to see what the hotel offered. We turned in our keys and I went to go pack up the car. We tetris'd the crap out of our bags and boxes. This was packed better than we came down here. Haha. I plugged the address into Nuvi and a way we went. We had to stop and get cash out of the bank to make our skydiving expenses cheaper.
Our jump time was going to be around 1. We had about 45 minutes to get there to be signed in. Little did we know we'd be waiting for about 2 hours. If I would have known that we would have been in such a rush we could have eaten some food before we got there.
The airstrip was right off of the main highway through Mollala. Both Ben and I had family ties to the small town. His grandmother owned a farm and raised a family there and my great uncle lived there for a few years before moving in with my grandma for a bit.
We turned off and headed towards the Skydive Oregon building. We parked the car and went inside. We checked in, signed a ridiculous waiver (basically they weren't liable for anything you chose to do regarding jumping out of an airplane willingly) and asked them a few questions before paying our money. They handed us envelopes, one to pay our instructor and the other for the extra add on for video and pictures during the jump experience. I still wasn't nervous.
We waited around for our jump, which was the 8th load of the day and they were on the 4th and 5th. We had to find something to occupy our time with. We went inside for a short briefing on safety and what we were suppose to do with our instructors. Ben got the GoPro and we filmed some of the parachutes coming down from the sky. We talked to some of the other people waiting for their jump time. Aside from Ben celebrating his 29th birthday by jumping out of a plane, we had two other couple's with people celebrating their 50th birthday and 25th birthday, one from Eugene and one from LA. We chatted with them for a while.
I was starting to get bored and it was cold waiting outside for our turn. I went out to the car to get a drink and to eat some crackers to ease off being hungry. Then we heard over the intercom, that our jump was next and that our group was next. We used the bathroom one more time and then walked through the door to get our jumpsuit and gear on. We met our instructors, Ben had a guy named Kirk and I had a guy named Archie. They were both skydive junkies. Our instructors told us what was going to happen and would give us more instructions when we got into the airplane.
We walked outside and it was becoming more real. Our instructors videoed us, asked us questions about our experience thus far, took some pictures and then we walked across the runway to the tent, where we waited for our plane. Our plane drove up after being refueled. They got the ladder and we all piled in, with our instructors sitting behind us. There were two tiny vertically placed benches and about 16 or so of us to slide on in. The non-tandem jumpers sat on the floor at the end of the plane.
And we took off. About half way up, our instructors started hooking and strapping us into place with their gear. They told us what was going to happen when we got to the floor for our turn to jump. Our hands needed to be on our shoulder straps until they tapped our shoulder to move them into the skydive position. That position is our body facing the ground and our arms up and bent at the elbow about 90 degrees and our legs bent behind us at 90 degrees. When they pulled the chute we were to cross our hands on our chest until they asked if we wanted to steer the chute. When we reached the ground legs up until instructed otherwise. Our ears were popping like crazy.
It got colder and colder as we got higher. They said it was going to be about 10 degrees at around 10,000 feet, the altitude of where we were going to jump from.
Also when we got our instructions, the door was opened and the non-tandem jumpers jumped out of the plane. That is where I got nervous. I continued looking out the window at the landscape down below. They took some more video and asked us if we were ready. Ben yelled out, "THIS JUST GOT REAL!" Indeed.
They opened the doors again and started letting the tandem jumpers out. I was going to be third. Watching the two people go before me just made me more nervous. My instructor and I slid off of the bench and onto the floor. Our legs dangled outside the plane. I bet my face was priceless. Then we jumped. I yelled the entire way down. It was hard to breathe becasue of all the air hitting you in the face from free falling. My ears popped the entire way down. My goggles fogged up for a few seconds and the air was really really cold. My body was falling from the sky anywhere from 90-120 mph. We fell for about a minute until he tapped my shoulder to let me know he was pulling the chute. I crossed my arms on my chest and awaited instructions. He told me to grab the chute straps and help his steer. It was really cool.
(Once I get a hold of Ben's disk for his pictures I will post them.)
When we got to the ground I saw that Ben and his instructor beat us. He left the plane after us. They unhooked us from the parachute and they got more videos of us and asked us questions on what we thought of our first skydive experience and if we would go again. Of course we would. Next time I probably would go during the summer time.
We followed them back to the building and we took our jumpsuits off and waited for our photos and videos. And Ben Soundered Skydive Oregon.
They gave us our disks and we went up the front counter to get our certificates and bumper stickers. We told them thank you and we got in the car and left. Before leaving Mollala we got gas at the local Safeway. Gas skyrocketed 30 cents since Wednesday. I asked Ben if he wanted to go to the Original Stash plaque (GCGV0P), which wasn't too far from here. He said sure. I put the coords in to Nuvi and she took us the back way to the plaque. I've been here three times now and always wondered where the road went after the plaque.
We stopped and he said, "this is it?" Yep. It was the same question I asked when I came here the first time. I thought it was a more elaborate cache that we actually had to hike and grab. He was still surprised that it was right off the road. He found the plaque and the other cache, Un-Original Stash (GC92), that was less than 100 feet from the plaque. I left a few trackables and a pathtag. Not the best plaque pic but it will do. Haha.
We went down the hill to a new one, Just Before the Stash (GC5ARBT). It replaced one that I found the first time we came to the plaque. This one was also easier to find so it took us a few seconds to locate it. Then we were on our way towards Oregon City to find some food. The first thing we saw was a Sharis, so that's where we went. This was also the first time since we've been in Oregon that a Timber's fan actually talked to Ben about his Sounder jersey.
We had to make a bathroom pit stop near Clackamas and from there it was smooth sailing towards home. We tried to get a hold of Josh to see if he still wanted to hang out. I opted to have Ben drive me home because I was tired and I had to work the next day. I was glad I went home because they stayed up til after 2 a.m. and drinking was involved. At least Ben had a great birthday even though so many people bailed on him.
Happy 29th Birthday Ben! :)
Next Adventure: The Lamprey Challenge and the Satsop Nuclear Power Plants
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