When we woke up, there was plenty of time for long hot showers and breakfast at the hotel.  My EST clock is the best when we travel west! From our hotel window, all we could see was the big beautiful blue sky!  It was the beginning of a weekend in the sun!  

After we ate, we checked out of the hotel and went outside.  What the hell?  It was FREEZING!  The beautiful blue sky and sunshine was deceptive!  I thought the temps would be warmer.  If I had a better handle on geography, I would have realized that we weren't very far south. 

We grabbed some drinks from McDonalds and got on the road.  It didn't take long to get to the DZ.  We arrived around 9:30 and there were only a few cars in the parking lot.  The door was unlocked and we went inside.

Not to sound like an ad, but they have a brand new 80,000 square foot facility complete with indoor bathrooms and showers, a nice common area with sofas and televisions, a gear shop, gear rental services, plenty of clean indoor padded packing space, and a sweet 19 seater Grand Caravan.

I absolutely loved the fact that they had automated their waivers.  They had a long counter with a couple of iPads.  Once manifest logged us in, we were able to complete our waivers electronically! Awesome!  Every drop zone should do this or they should at least have them available for download.

After we finished the waivers, we got a drop zone briefing and put ourselves on load one.  First order of business:  PUT ON MORE CLOTHES! I hadn't planned to wear thermals, but it was about 15 degrees colder than I thought it would be!  I was happy that I brought them along!

An assortment of staff and local fun jumpers showed up and eventually we had enough people for load 1!  We put on our gear and we were waiting for the plane on a short call when another one of the locals arrived. Manifest pushed the call back another 20 minutes so they could get on the plane.  GRRRR!  Enough said. Even after the guy was in his gear, we were all just standing around waiting for the pilot.  It turns out he was sitting in the plane waiting for us!  Our quick stop at Skydive Alabama wasn't so quick. 

Once the plane takes off, I get a happy heart!  When I was a student, I loved being near the door - feeling the air on my face. Not today! Since it was late fall, the door was staying shut tight until the pilot gave us the red light.  I was pleasantly surprised when they opened the door because the air didn't feel cold!  In fact, I think it was warmer at 5,000 feet than it was on the ground! The locals said this is normal and explained why it happens, but I don't remember.  If you visit, you should ask them about it!

We weren't the only low passes on the load.  One of the instructors was out before us - he was a big guy with a tiny canopy.  With my wingloading  below 1.2, I am usually the last one out!

There wasn't much wind, but I had a nice landing.  I didn't even have to run it out much.  Matt was near by when I landed and we shared our Alabama high-five!

Before we left the drop zone, I had a chance to meet Cristi!  We didn't get to chat for long, but I gave her some Pink Mafia Sisters initiation stickers to give to the girls that Marion Sparks had initiated at Bamafest in August. We loaded up the car and headed out.  Next stop...Georgia!