Once we were in the car, Matt called to make sure the Oklahoma Skydiving Center was open.  I emailed ahead of time and they told me they'd be jumping until sunset,, but it was good to check. When he talked to manifest, they said the pilot was showing up around 2:30 and they'd be jumping all day.  Excellent!

Neither of us knew what to expect as we entered Oklahoma, but we both agreed that it was absolutely beautiful!  It wasn't nearly as flat as we thought it would be. The trees along the highway were blooming with beautiful purple flowers.  The contrast between the purple and green reminded me of Matt's old canopy. Our drive was easy and we got to the drop zone quickly (just 141 miles from Skydive Skyranch!). As we entered the parking lot, we could see the word SKYDIVE wrapped around the corner of the building and a Cessna was taking off. Awesome! We grabbed our gear and went inside. Wow! A picture's worth 1,000 words. So, see for yourself!

We were pleasantly surprised! Everything was so clean!  The carpet looked brand new and it was ample packing space for two Cessna loads.  We went to manifest and started the check in process. Time to fill out the waivers - again we found a single page waiver!  Yay! When we were done with our waivers, we asked the woman in manifest if we could do low passes.  She didn't know what they were.  Hmmm...how about a hop & pop? She didn't know what that was either!  She said she'd call the owner's wife to see what they cost.  In the meantime, I asked one of the local guys - $20.00.

It turns out she had just started working at the DZ and she was still learning. She carefully reviewed our waivers, USPA cards and packing slips.  Then, she said we'd need the owner to look at our gear.  He was on the plane and would be back shortly. No worries. This gave me a chance to look around.  What a nice building! There were separate male/female bathrooms, a nice lounge with A/C, rental gear, an experienced skydiver bunkhouse, showers, and a shaded picnic area.

While I was checking out the facilities, I noticed an instructor with purple hair, tattoos, and piercings. OMG!!! Finally!!! It took almost exactly 11 years, but I found a guy that matched my imaginary skydiver!  I had to get a picture with him before we left for our next drop zone.

We watched a few landings that weren't so great because the winds were shifting around a little.  One of the locals asked if we had heard about Jessica.  Everyone was curious about what had happened. Since there wasn't much information on dropzone.com, they figured it must have been Jessica's fault, but they were just speculating.

Before the DZO landed, they put our load on a call.  We went ahead and put on our gear and waited by the front of the hangar. When the DZO came in, I offered to pull out my reserve card, but he said we were good to go since the girl at manifest had already looked at it.  He pointed out the large oil tanks and the prison as places not to land.  The landing area was very large so we weren't overly concerned about landing off. One of the benefits to traveling is learning to be a more accurate canopy pilot.

We were on a load with two other fun jumpers, but there was plenty of space!  The view above the drop zone was awesome!  Compared to the oil tanks, the prison looked small! As you can see from the picture below, the landing area is substantial.

Matt set up a pattern for the peas and landed very close to them!  He really should get his pro rating! My landing was great!  I was so excited - two states down!  Only three to go.

While we were packing, we talked to the local guys about some of the places we've been.  Over the years, we've been to a bunch of drop zones.  In my experience, the small drop zones were friendlier than the larger ones. As a drop zone gets larger, it seems to lose it's intimacy.

Larger DZs are usually more professional.  They usually have better facilities, larger planes, more fun jumpers and organizers. Part of finding the right DZ is knowing what you want. 

Oklahoma Skydiving Center had an impressive operation for a Cessna DZ! The locals were friendly, the bathrooms were clean, and it was obvious the owners are making positive changes. The DZ was very welcoming to fun jumpers! Even though I didn't get a chance to meet any of the local women  I left behind some SIS socks for them!

There was plenty of daylight left when we got in the car.  Next stop...dinner!  The Steer Inn Family Restaurant was only 7 minutes away!