We sat in the parking lot of Great Lakes Skydiving and tried to figure out where we would go next. Minnesota? Iowa? Missouri? Those were the only possible options. There was a drop zone in Southern Minnesota, but it was over 300 miles away. The drive would take us nearly five hours plus the weather wasn't looking so great. The next obvious choice was Iowa. As luck would have it, there was a drop zone in Iowa that was less than 200 miles away. We did a quick weather check. It looked good at the moment, but as the day progressed more clouds would be moving in, but it was worth a shot. Matt called to see if they were open. We were excited to discover they were open and jumping! Matt explained our situation and the DZO offered to stay in touch with us to let us know if the weather changed.
At this point, we were both pumped up! It was hard to believe that we were going to get a sixth state on our third day! It's funny how my perspective on driving has changed. I used to think 3 hours was a long time in the car, but now it doesn't really seem like much at all. While I was driving over a huge bridge, Matt said, "I wonder what river this is?" He checked on his phone and we were both surprised when we discovered it was the Mississippi! We had driven so far west that we were crossing the Mississippi! "I can't believe we're crossing the Mississippi!" I laughed and assured him that we'd be doing it again later on our trip!
Along our travels through Wisconsin and Iowa, we saw some beautiful small towns. When we stopped, we discovered something pretty awesome! The people were so nice! If it didn't get so cold, we'd consider retiring in this region of the US, but since neither one of us enjoy the cold, that would never happen! We didn't have any traffic delays and made it to the drop zone in roughly three hours.
We grabbed our gear and headed to the hangar. As we were walking across the tarmac, the DZO, Jay, came out to help carry in our gear. "Matt?" He introduced himself and took our rigs and carried them in for us. What? I've been to a bunch of drop zones, but this is the first time EVER that anyone offered to help us carry our gear! AND..this guy was the DZO! He said that he had to inspect them anyway so he might as well just carry them in.
The hangar was spacious with plenty of places to pack and rest. There were real bathrooms not far away in the airport building. As we sat in the air-conditioned office, Jay checked our rigs. Once we were finished, we received a drop zone briefing and were on the next load. Iowa was our bonus state! Sitting on the plane, I couldn't help but smile. Paradise Skydives was more than 1,000 miles from our house. We never expected to end up so far west!
One of the local guys was in charge of the door. We've discovered that some DZs want a local to be responsible for the door so it doesn't get damaged. In this particular case, they don't open the door until they reach the exit altitude. We found this odd because it was a beautiful August afternoon and was in the 80s and we are used to making the low pass climb with the door open. I guess it's a way to save a little extra fuel? In any event, it was good that he was by the door because there were some clouds at our exit altitude. He helped Matt with spotting and we lucked out because there was a huge break in the clouds just above the drop zone!
It's amazing how flat the earth is in Iowa!
While we were packing, we met one of the locals named Chris Wilkins. It turns out that he was shooting video for our friend Anne's four way time. I don't remember how he managed to end up in Iowa for the weekend, but we were happy to meet him. After we finished with our rigs, we went back into the office. Matt had his log book signed by the DZO - D-9684 - Jay Speckeen and I got my log book signed my the man that trained Jay! He was D-5448! I really wish I could read his signature in my log book! He had participated in several record attempts with Carol Clay.
We said our goodbyes and loaded the gear in the car. This drop zone didn't have the largest landing area or the best facilities we had seen on our trip, but it had some of the nicest people we had ever met. I wonder if there is something special in the Iowa water? If we lived in Iowa, this is where we would be skydiving every weekend!
As we pulled away from the drop zone, the plane took off with another load. Six states in three days - I had driven nearly 1,400 miles! Now, we had to decided if we were going to head straight home or try to swing by Kentucky, but our first priority was dinner! We only drove about 30 minutes before we stopped at an Olive Garden in Cedar Rapids. It had been a long time since our breakfast in Wisconsin - we were starving! During dinner, we looked at the weather for Kentucky. Things didn't look promising, but based on our driving route, we didn't have to make our decision until the following morning.
When we were back in the car, Matt tried to figure out where we'd be sleeping for the night. I only drove another 270 miles that night and we ened up staying in Champagne, Illinois at Hawthorne Suites - 740 miles from home. By the time we got to sleep, it was after midnight.
