Alaska Skydiving Center TruckAlaska Skydiving Center is located in Palmer, 43 miles from the Sheraton Hotel in Anchorage. After breakfast, we stopped at Wal-Mart to get a case of water and car adapter to charge our cell phones. Then, we headed over to the drop zone.

Even though it was windy when we got there, we pulled our gear out of the car and took it inside. The owner's wife, Tammy, was working manifest and gave us waivers to complete.

The winds were very strong and it seemed like the day was a wash, but we weren't going anywhere just yet. I sat in the floor in manifest and talked to some of the local jumpers and pilots.

There are constant reminders that the skydiving community is small. One of the local guys we met, Dan, used to skydive at Merriah's parents' drop zone. He'd known Merriah since she was a young girl. Of course, I also finally got to meet Kramer in person. It's hard to believe he worked at VSC for a couple of years and we'd never met.

We asked about the bears.  From the stories we heard on the plane, we expected to see bears everywhere.  According to the guys at the DZ, seeing bears is less common than we expected after our conversation with Marie. It seems as though she may have embellished a little.

Dan suggested that we drive to Talkeetna at the base of Mount McKinley (AKA Denali) - the highest mountain in North America. Mount McKinley is 20,237 feet above sea level. In addition to seeing the mountain, he suggested we met the mayor of Talkeetna - a cat named Stubbs

The winds continued to pick up and it was obvious we would not be jumping today. We put our gear in the car and set out for Talkeetna about 85 miles away