I woke up several times during the night trying to get comfortable. Then I woke up for good when housekeeping made their first round down our hallway. We all started getting ready for our day. I still wasn't nervous about jumping out of a plane even though my brain was telling me "dude, you're going to jump out of a plane!" I made sure we packed up everything on to the cart. We had a noon check out time. We left way before that.
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
We got up around 10 and got our stuff ready to go. We were suppose to go see his grandma but she had a hair appointment. We stopped to see if we could find I Don't Bite Hard! (GC2EW7P) but we could not in the day light either. I left the cache owner a note to check to see if it was still there. On our way to Wendy's house in South Hill, we decided to find out what this Sky Stone thing was. We parked and found out there was a geocache nearby! Sky Stone was a glacier erratic that made it to this part of Bonney Lake when glaciers covered most of North America. When they receded they left behind huge boulders.
We wandered up the trail to MFC09 (Skystone Ascension) (GC1ZQX5). It was an easy find right off the trail but of course we made it harder than it was. We entered from the top instead of the bottom. Our shoes got a little dirty. It was a good find.
We saw Wendy for about an hour. She told us about her arm surgery she had about a month ago. We chatted about other random things until Walter got home. We talked to him for a bit and decided it was time go head down to Oregon. We were going to try and hit up Cannon Beach if we had time. We didn't leave Puyallup until about 2ish.
We put some miles behind us and got hungry. I told him by the time we got to Cannon Beach it will be dark and not worth it. Then we had a 90 mile drive back to Portland. He pondered it and decided to save the beach for another time. We stopped in Longview at a Safeway. Since he paid for just about everything so far I told him I would by him lunch. I got a Lunchable and he got one of those sandwiches from the deli. We paid and went back to the car and at our food. Then he wanted to go get some party supplies from Target. He was looking for some soft dodge like balls to throw at each other in our hotel pool. We found two small dodge balls and a soccer ball. It was too bad there weren't anymore dodge balls. We paid and hit the road again.
We got to the I-5/205 junction and we made the merge onto 205 towards Oregon and looked for the I-84 exit towards Gresham. We had the address in the Nuvi so it took us right where we needed to go. We messed up and thought it was on the left hand side of the road but it was really on the right hand side so we had to turn around. We pulled into the hotel parking lot, parked and went inside to check in. We had a really nice southern young lady check us in. We were on the third floor in room 314.
We went up to our room to check it out. Because I can't help myself...I had to check out everything. They didn't tuck in their beds but their air conditioning/heater unit filter was clean. Then we went down stairs to bring stuff in. Ben used the bathroom and I went out and grabbed a few things and went back upstairs. I came back down to see if he was done. I talked to the front desk gal for a few minutes about her housekeeping department. He wandered over, we grabbed the cart and we continued bringing in our stuff.
We chilled inside the hotel room as we tried to find something to do until his friends Megan and Sarah arrived. It was too dark to do something outdoors so we decided upon going to the Widmer Brothers Brew Pub in downtown. I was so excited because my favorite beer, Drop Top, was brewed there. We got the address and off we went. We found out Ben left some stuff on top of his car. Luckily, no one stole it. We stopped by Safeway to get a few things along the way. Ben forgot we were in Oregon because he was contemplating getting some liquor for tonight's festivities. They do not sell liquor in Oregon grocery stores.
We got to the pub, parked the car across the street and went in. Next time I come down here I must do the brewery tour. They seated us and we ordered beer. I got the Drop Top of course and Ben couldn't decide on one so he ordered a six beer flight.
I had the Tillamook Mac n Cheese and he had some sort of burger. Both were delicious. When you're in Oregon have the Mac n Cheese. You will not be sorry. We enjoyed our beer and our food while Ben made fun of the Portland Timbers. Just about ever minute of our visit to Oregon involved verbally pooping on the Timbers.
We paid and went back to our hotel to wait for Megan and Sarah. They were roughly a hour away. I did some geocaching computer stuff and Ben played his game on his phone. When they did arrive everyone was confused and Ben ended up wandering the hotel looking for them while they made their way up to the room. I introduced myself and they reciprocated. We ended up chatting for a bit before Ben showed up. We were all prepared for dodge balls being thrown at us. We finished off some sparkling wine before heading down to the hot tub and pool for some swimming and dodge ball.
We were down there for a good hour or so. We played 2 on 2 dodge ball for a while until the balls got too saturated with water and became dangerous. Then we sat in the hot tub until everyone got tired. We went back upstairs to our room, we all took turns in the shower and then played two rounds of Ninja Dice before passing out for the night. It was around 2 a.m. It was great to finally meet Megan. Until tomorrow...when Ben and I jump out of a perfectly good airplane.
Next Adventure: Skydive Oregon, Original Stash and Driving Back to Washington
We got up around 8 and got our stuff ready. We didn't know if we would be coming back to his mom's house or staying with a friend in Seattle. The night before we did some research on Vashon...ferry times, caches, roads, landmarks, etc. I feel we were very prepared for our day. Later on is when we were going to go with the flow and it really depended upon his friends and their schedules.
We were so upset when we got outside. It was beautiful the last five days and now when we had our days off it rained. So disappointed.
We packed the car and headed to Point Defiance, the south end ferry entrance, and got in line. There, we called the skydiving place and set a time and reserved our hotel. We planned on jumping Friday but because the weather was no good for that day, we moved it to Saturday. So we would be staying in our hotel Friday to Saturday. All of our reservations were set. We paid our $20 ferry fees and drove onto the dock. Within minutes we were on our way to Vashon.
We drive off the ferry and headed up the Vashon Highway. We weren't sure where we were going so we were going to let the geocaches guide us around the island. Our first stop was a pullout that used to be an inspirational point but because the trees all grew up. We looked for the virtual cache first, Vashon-History (GCCD06). The coords took us to a stone that asked us to find the three dates and send them to the cache owner and of course a picture at the location without giving anything away. Check and check.
Before leaving inspirational point, we found the Used to be an Inspirational Point (GC1BWA), the traditional cache less than 100 feet from the virtual. Ben wrote our names and I traded trackables. Then we switched our tennis shoes into our hiking boots. Our next stop was a tiny area of Vashon called Burton.
Burton is a historical waterfront residential area with a large park, a boat launch and some hiking trails...but mostly houses. We parked the car and headed into the forest to find Wind in the Hallows (GCK8CW). We went to the right tree just didn't find it right away. We checked other places and came back to the tree. I reached in and found the lock n' lock. We signed it and put it back for the next cacher.
We walked back to the car and attempted the next one from the other part of the road and found out we made an error. We went back, parked again and walked the quarter of a mile from the same trail we left, read the hint because the coords were bouncy and found the cache, Burton Acres We Are Here (GC17DCE). We walked back to the car.
The next cache on the GPS took us to a recreation park, specifically to a cache called Skate Park (GC1GPJF). I wish we had something this cool in my home town. It was just some land set aside with a building and hills. The building was an indoor skate park, there was a 9 hole disc golf course and a BMX course. The BMX course was very unique. Due to the island being known for their arbor-bound bikes, this one didn't disappoint. The entire area was riddled with bikes in trees, spokes in trees and even rims hanging in trees along with a wonderfully weird art display. We found the cache and then played a round of disc golf.
After our adventure in the park it was time for some food. I got my phone out and tried out my restaurant finder for the first time. A place called Zombies popped up. With a name like that we were so going. It was a quaint little hamburger place off of the main drag in town. After circling the block once, we found a place to park. We went inside and looked at the menu and decided what we wanted. Ben got the ZAT burger and I got the build your own burger. The food was awesome. They reminded me of Rain City Burgers in Seattle. If you like unusual go to Zombies on Vashon.
We decided we wanted to go to the lighthouse on the Maury part of the island...the south eastern branch of Vashon. We followed the GPS and the signs to Robinson Point Lighthouse. On the way there, we found some caches along the way. One was a guardrail key hider, This is Some of our Drinking Water! (GC39ZEG) and the other, If I only had a Brain (GC41YNQ). I added that one to my favorites list. It was made out of a 1990's Nerf Brain Ball and it was one of the most awesome caches on the island.
When we got there, there was an upper and lower parking lot and some people who rented the houses near the light house. We parked, used the restroom and then got our Go Pro ready. We walked over to find Elves Treasure Cache (GCQ8G7) within arms reach of the bench. It was a pill container hidden underneath a rock and it was really muddy.
We put it back and made our way to the light house and Ohjoy's earthcache, You Light up my Life (GC1DG1F). Where hasn't she been? Seriously. I've found caches in Vantage and by Neah Bay that she's hidden. But that was before the granfathered law that they put into effect not too long ago. Now, we can't hide anything more than 100 miles from our home location, unless it is a virtual (which we can't create anymore) or an earthcache. I read the information on what questions we would have to answer about this location. Basically it was about the tides and the Puget Sound and why the island may have different tides than the rest of the Puget Sound. We goofed around with the Go Pro, my phone and just enjoyed each other at the light house.
We decided it was getting late and the weather was getting yucky. We drove back to the main road and found the last cache of the day. It was one I've had on my list for a while. It was a puzzle cache called Vashon-???? (GCCCFF) and it took us to the legend of the bicycle in a tree. I've always wanted to come here. I've heard stories about it, news articles, saw it on the news one day, I just wanted to go see it before the vandals took more pieces off of it. We parked across the street in the park and ride, walked across the street and found the hidden entrance across a small bridge. We went inside the woods and there it was. All we had to do was tell the cache owner what it was and the color. There wasn't an actual geocache hidden. We took some pictures.
I saw a really hilarious mural in the middle of town that we had to go get a picture of. It was one of the best murals I've seen in a while...or maybe it was my sense of humor. It was a mural of two crows fighting over a Baby Ruth candy bar.
After getting the picture, we got back onto the main highway and headed north towards the ferry to get off at Fauntleroy/West Seattle. We didn't have to wait that long and this ferry was bigger than the other one. The ride back over to the mainland was cold.
We had dinner plans at 8 to eat at the Cheesecake Factory in Seattle but all of his friends bailed so we decided to do something else for the remainder of our time. Instead, we drove to Bellevue and went to Stone Gardens, a rock climbing gym, for a couple of hours. I conquered a couple of V0's and V1's.
It was getting late and we were getting hungry. We drove around the block a few times trying to figure out how to get into the gas station, haha. We got gas and then tried to find a place to eat. We eventually ended up in Tukwila and ended up using the Cheesecake Factory gift cards. I had a chicken Parmesan sandwich and Ben had a steak. He had his peanut butter cheesecake afterwards.
I got really tired and could not wait to go to bed. Sometime during the night I got up in a panic, stood over by the door and turned on the light, said some weird stuff to Ben and passed out on the floor. He got up, freaked out because I was not breathing or responding to his EMT procedures. Eventually I woke up, said more weird stuff and then used the bathroom. I'm guessing I ate something that really did not agree with me and stressed my body out. I really didn't feel good after I ate my food but then it could had been anything. My job stressed me out this month, I was tired, I could have been getting sick, etc. It was a weird experience and I felt terrible worrying Ben like that. Anyway, we had fun and here's to the next few days.
Next Adventure: Driving to Oregon, Hotel, Widmer Brothers and a Pool Party
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