Over the course of my travels, I've realized that visiting a drop zone, is sort of like visiting someone's house. Some of them are as neat as a pin and some are dirty. Some drop zones have lots or rules and some don't have very many. Some are family friendly and some ask you to leave your children at home.  Some allow pets and some don't. 

At the drop zones with dogs, we normally see them hanging out in manifest or tied up outside. When I was growing up, we had dogs. Large dogs scare me a little, but it's reasonable to say that I like dogs. Matt and I have even talked about getting a one someday when are cats are gone.

Inside the Skydive Missouri hangar, there were three dogs.  Katie, Lucie & Skittles are actually listed on the staff page and are part of the Skydive Missouri family.  One of the staff said not to worry because they don't pee on the gear.  I would hope not!

A senior fun jumper was using a mat while he was packing.  When he finished, he used a sticky roller to remove the dog hair from his gear. With my allergies, I really didn't want to put my rig down anywhere with dog hair.  I ended up setting it on a plastic chair.

The DZO, Feisty, gave us our waivers and told us he'd get us in the air a few loads out.  He had a tandem students to put up before we could go.  After I finished my waiver, I asked to use the bathroom.

The real bathroom was out of order so the porta potty was my only option.  I am not a stranger to porta potties.  In fact, my home DZ has some that I use on a regular basis. When I entered, the stench nearly knocked me over. Stinky poo!  I have never seen anything like it before. Not only was it very "full", the inside was in desperate need of cleaning. I instantly wished I had not consumed a large tea and a bottle of water on the way over from Kansas!

The guy that checked our reserve repacks said they only have one rule - don't die. There was no discussion of landing patterns - not that we need one.  With only four people in the air, it's pretty easy to stay clear of others. That is definitely another advantage of a Cessna drop zones.   

Another one of the locals showed us the Aerial map. Matt and I were surprised when he pointed to a spot across the highway and said it was a good out.  Matt asked him if someone would come to pick us up if we landed there. Nope! He said we'd need to run across the highway with our gear. In the image below, the North is shown on the left side.  

While we were waiting to get in the air, we spent some time talking to one of the locals named Jeff.  He'd been skydving for a long time and so had Feisty.  Feisty had multiple records including a bunch of gold and silver medals at the US Skydiving Championships.  Not only was Feisty a DZO with over 10,000 skydives, he was a tandem instructor, a pilot, a master rigger, tandem examiner and the list goes on.    

When it was our turn to go, Feisty got in the tail. I sat next to the tandem student facing him. I had a very hard time getting my seat belt on because it didn't seem long enough, but Feisty helped me figure it out. As we were climbing to altitude, the tandem student told us that it was her very first plane ride. She was so excited! I wondered what she was thinking. My first airplane ride involved several flight attendants, a comfy seat, a few cocktails, and a movie. This was a no frills flight!

As we got closer to exit altitude, I turned around and faced Matt. I noticed that the tandem student was still sitting with her back against the pilot's seat.  I wondered why she wasn't connected to Feisty. Even when we opened the door, she was still in the same place.  Both Matt and I thought this was odd.  If one of us accidentally hit the tail, the tandem student would be out of luck.  Both Feisty and the pilot had parachutes - she had none.  Ignorance is bliss.  

Both Matt and I landed right in front of the hangar. Four states in two days and four absolutely beautiful landings! Woo hoo! We daisy chained our rigs and took them out to the van. Neither one of us wanted to pack in the hangar.  I stuffed my rig inside my suitcase.  I'd have to pack it when we got to the drop zone in Kentucky.

After we had our gear in the car, I asked Feisty to sign my log book.  I told him that I had been collecting signatures of people with low D license numbers.  He said his D license number wasn't very impressive, so he signed with his USPA number instead  - 2450!  He'd been skydiving for over 40 years! 

Just before we got in the car, I saw the tandem student.  She said it was scarier watching me leave the plane than it was when she left. Little did she know, she was definitely in more danger when I left the plane than she was once she was connected to the TI!

Once we were back in the car, we talked about our options.  We were roughly 500 miles from the drop zone in Kentcky.  After a short discussion, we decided drive as far as possible before stopping. With no time for a big dinner, Matt looked for closest Chick-Fil-A.