Louisiana It's never hard for me to wake up when we are on a trip.  My internal clock is set for at least an hour before any alarm we use.  On this particular trip, we were in a different time zone - waking up at 8 our time was waking up at 7 in real time.  I woke Matt up by 8:30 so we could have breakfast before our showers.  The drop zone wasn't going to be open until 10:00 so we weren't in a rush.  

At first glance, the free breakfast wasn't that great.  I prefer to start my day with some sort of protein, but the choices weren't that wonderful.  I made a plate of food and when I tasted the sausage gravy, I was sad to discover some spice that I don't like.  It might be sage, it might be thyme....not sure, but I didn't like the taste or smell.  That's when I noticed the waffle station around the corner from the rest of the breakfast buffet.  Although I'm not a huge breakfast carb fan, I do enjoy a yummy Belgium waffle!  I tossed my food in the trash and made a waffle.  It was absolutely delicious.  I struggled to cut up and apple with my plastic fork, but I didn't give up!  I managed to eat nearly half of it.  Matt had a bagel, some yogurt and part of my waffle.

We had our showers, packed up the car, grabbed some drinks at McDonald's and headed over to the drop zone.  We arrived at approximately 10:15 AM.  When we pulled in to the DZ, I said I wanted to be out of there no later than 12:00 local time.  It's easy to get sucked into conversations with the locals because I'm a talker!  I need to verbalize a departure time so I stay on task.

When we got there, the plane was on the ground, but there were tandems waiting to go on the first load of the day.  One of the instructors - Charlie - checked our log books, licenses, and our gear.  The DZO gave us waivers to complete.  It was $23.00 each even though we were getting out at 5,000.  When we finished our waivers, we Charlie gave us a drop zone briefing.  Looking at the aeriel map, we could see that there were not many outs.  The drop zone was mostly surrounded by trees.  There was a small residential area near by, but it didn't really have any suitable outs.  The first load of tandems was going up and the DZO told us we'd be hot loading.  She had some more tandems waiting, but it seemed like there might be a limited number of instructors.  This worked out to our benefit as we didn't have to wait for them to finish with the tandems before they put us in the air.

I asked where the bathroom was located and Brenda said it was around the corner.  I figured it must be around the backside of the hangar and was anticipating a port-a-potty.  I was so pleasantly surprised when I walked around the corner and saw a door the lead to a real bathroom!  Yay!  A real bathroom with toilet paper, soap, and hand sanitizer.  What more could a girl want?  Hot water??? When I washed my hands, I discovered that there was no hot water, but I wasn't about to complain as I was in a real bathroom instead of experiencing that gross feeling you get in a most port-a-potties!

The entire staff at Skydive Nawlins was friendly.  The packers asked where we were from as did the instructors.  When "Hippie" arrived, he came over and introduced himself to us.  I'm not sure how old he was, but he'd been jumping for 20 years and had over 9,000 skydives.  When I asked him about his nickname, he said he got it on his very first day.  He showed up at the drop zone with long hair, flip-flops, etc.  They gave him the nickname Hippie and it stuck.

Matt & Skydive Nawlins SignThree men showed up to do tandems. It turns out they were groomsmen from a wedding party and had purchased a tandem for the groom, but he didn't come because he chickened out.  I was surprised they didn't bring him along to watch since none of them were getting video.  I will never understand why people don't spend the extra money to get video.  If you are only planning to skydive once in your life time, how can you pass up PROOF!  When I meet tandem students at my local DZ, I always recommend video.  Once I explain my reasoning, most of them opt to add video.  I'm sure manifest loves me!

No matter where we are, we are always geared up waiting at the plane before the locals show up.  One of the tandem instructors from the previous load was coming on our load so he could fun jump with the packer.  As we loaded the Cessna 182, I was careful not to bump my GoPro.  While I was sitting facing the tail of the plane, I realized that I didn't seem as crowded as normal and the floor was very well cushioned.  We've been on a number of Cessna 182's, but this one seemed larger and more comfortable than some of the others.

It didn't take long for us to get to altitude.  The spot was perfect and we had no trouble making it back to the landing area.  It's a good thing because there weren't any outs.  Skydive Nawlins is surrounded by trees and a residential area.  With the exception of landing on the airport, there wasn't anywhere else to land.  Fortunately, it isn't a problem when the pilot is great spotting! 

Since Matt and I were the only low passes, I hung out under canopy and watch his pattern. The wind was light and variable and it had changed directions since we took off.  I set myself up for the landing area closest to the hangar.  During my final approach, I could tell that the winds had picked up a little.  I wasn't coming in nearly as fast as I thought I would.  This made for an awesome landing.  Sweet!  As we gathered up our canopies, the DZO came over to pick us up in her truck.  We are used to walking 10 times further to get back to our hangar and we were very surprised that she would drive such a short distance to pick us up.

While we were packing our rigs, the pilot stopped by to ask us if the spot was good.  It was perfect!  Once we got everything together, we bought a t-shirt and said our goodbyes!  The DZO Brenda even gave me a hug! I hope that we have an opportunity to stop by again sometime.  Skydive Nawlins seems like a fun place to hang out!