Although we didn’t have to be in Boulder until 10:30, and it only took about 30 minutes to get there, we were showered, dress, fed and ready to go by 9 ish. You could say there was some anxiety in the air caused not only by the thought of jumping out of a plane, but mixed with the worry of not having the chance because once again, rain was in the forecast. So we naturally got to the small skydiving airport early, and it was a good thing. Clouds were multiplying by the hour.
We were a little rushed to get into harnesses and waited on the tarmac. The clouds still expanded, but we were reassured that we were definitely going, those after us might not be. While we waited for parachutes in the sky, Ryan and Rich, kept us entertained with jokes. We saw parachutes gliding to the ground and began to make some adjustments to the harnesses. Rich (who was of Mexican decent), was Becca’s instructor and when tightening her straps asked if she had ever been jumped by a Mexican. The comic relief eased our nerves.
The small plane landed and we climbed in. There was just enough space for the four of us plus the pilot. Becca and I were strapped into Rich and Ryan and up we went with a clear view of the ground getting smaller below us. At this point, I have been given no instructions what so ever, all Ryan told me was there was no reason, I wouldn’t remember anyways. As we started the climb he told me what would happen and I guess even though I shook my head, my blank stare gave away the fact that I couldn’t hear him over the gust of wind blowing by in the space where a door might have been. At one point it turned cold we closed the flap over the opening. We were still climbing to higher elevations. Then the plane dipped and Rich gave out a scream. Becca and I immediately started to laugh, we couldn’t be fooled. Almost to our desired elevation, Ryan went through the instructions again. This time I could make out “legs over the edge and put your feet behind you, go when I say go.” That was all the instructions I needed. We rolled up the tarp and feet over the edge we fell forward out of the plane.
Whoooooo………..
What a rush! I couldn’t feel the cold, or the wind, just the overwhelming sense of
the adrenaline rushing throughout my body. I couldn’t even hear my screams of excitement. As we free fell, Ryan spun us around get a panoramic view of Boulder below us and the Rockies to our West. (Becca was grateful she could where her glasses under the goggles to see the gorgeous view.) After a decent minute, Ryan let the parachute out and I instantly felt the harness doing its job. I also thought, geez, that’s going to leave a mark. (And from what I was told, the harness was equally if not more unpleasant for Becca, but provided some laughs between her and Rich.)
With the canopy guiding our fall, Ryan unlatched and loosened a few of my straps to make the ride a little more comfort (surprisingly enough I didn’t get nervous by this, I may have been overly confident in my instructor). This was also when I got our landed instructions of “when I say to, lift you feet.” He turned us a few times and I tried to figure out where we would land, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be in the pond, but where? I couldn’t tell. Then we neared the ground and headed towards more open space, I got the notice to lift my feet and expect to land seated. But things went smoothly and I was able to put my feet down, and just walked off the landing.
Ryan unhooked us and I had time to watch Becca and Rich land. They came to a halt on their behinds (I forgot Ryan carried our camera down, so I didn’t get any pictures).
A van pulled up and we all piled in. We had a few more laughs on the ride back to the airport. Ryan told us about landing in some really random places and being picked up by strangers. Rich cracked a few more jokes about him being Mexican, so Becca asked where he was from. Ryan was shocked when Rich replied that we was born and raised in Boulder (he called himself a coconut, brown on the outside, boulder on the inside).
We finished up a lot earlier than expected, so we asked for directions and headed to Fort Collins. We were hoping to see a high school friend of Becca’s when she got out of work. We looked up things to do in Fort Collins and of course breweries popped up. So we visited one, while we waited for Amanda. She met us there and took us to a downtown area, which reminded me of a similar street in Burlington, VT. The visit was nice but we had to cut it a bit short to get back on the road. Our destination was Hayes, Kansas about a 5 hour drive with a time change not in our favor.
Back down to Denver, we got on I-70 and headed to the East. Our friend the rain (since it waited for us to get back into the car, the rain was now our friend) came down in buckets. As we were leaving the rocky mountain state, the land became flat and straight, but the rain started to lighten up and we drove into a full rainbow that met the ground on both sides of the interstate. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, we noticed that in fact it was a double full rainbow (OMG, what does this mean?) Although it wasn’t as mind blowing as it may be to some, it was pretty spectacular in its rarity.
At every exit we neared we were trying to scope out a place to eat, but kept going, hopeful the next one would have something to offer. We ended up going 2 hours like this before actually making the stop in Burlington, KS at The Route restaurant. The food wasn’t bad and the service was a little slow, but the most memorable thing about this stop was the man in a sombrero. On he way out he stopped at our booth and made room for himself next to Becca. He mumbled something that we could not decipher and after saying something about having to go pay his neighbors and sons, left us to our dessert. It was national cheesecake day, and after not being lucky to find some in Fort Collins, we had to spilt a piece with some coffee. Then back on the road.
474.2 miles
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