Skydiving has never been convenient for me.  From the very beginning, I realized that I would need to do an boat load of driving if I wanted to earn my A License.  Here I am 10 years later and it occurs to me that driving is just part of the skydiving experience.  When you’re on a quest to skydive in every state, driving is required. It’s like you’re least favorite portion of your favorite hobby.  You might love golf, but you hate waiting for someone to finish the hole ahead of you.  It’s a necessary evil.

A tremendous amount of planning that went into this trip!  The goal:  Jump in five states in four days.  I spent hours reading drop zone reviews and looking at maps to plot a course that would allow us to get as many states as possible with the least amount of driving.  It was hard to find drop zones that were open when I wanted them to be open.  Some DZs don’t start until 4:00 PM!  After many hours of planning, I felt confident that I had found the best route for us to take.  I printed directions for each segment of the trip and included alternative directions in the event we were unable to make it to a particular DZ or if we got weathered out.

It was Wednesday and our adventure was about to begin! 

I spent the morning packing and organizing things for the trip.  In the past, we’ve use separate suit cases or one huge suitcase with all of our clothes, but I decided to change it up.  I made “one day” stacks.  Basically, I divided our clothes into piles – one for each day of our trip.  Two pairs of socks, two pairs of underwear…you get the idea.  This would eliminate the need to bring in a huge suitcase.  I have a bunch of those little nylon shoulder bags.  At the end of the day, I could grab the toiletries and one small bag out of the trunk instead of lugging around a suitcase.  Added bonus….the nylon bag was perfect for our dirty clothes.  I felt like a genius! 

Unfortunately, I still had to contend with “normal” responsibilities.  This meant that I would need to drive Emma to her dad’s office on Wednesday afternoon.  He agreed to bring her all the way back to the house on Sunday so we’d have some flexibility with our return trip.  Getting up to Northern VA and back took me almost 5 hours.  I got back to the house right around 3 PM.

I rechecked the weather only to discover that things had taken a turn for the worst.  The chance of precipitation had jumped up.  Ugh!  Things looked absolutely terrible for Saturday – no matter where we would be.  What should we do?  Matt had taken off three days from work.  We needed to do something.

I started to panic.  All this planning was useless.  I can’t control the weather.  Then, I got a crazy idea.  We could go where the weather was guaranteed to be awesome.  I pulled up a weather map for the US only to discover that the five day forecast for the entire country was not looking good with the exception of Washington State and Oregon.  I lost track of time checking flights, hotel prices, etc.  It’s so overwhelming trying to find the best price.  I texted Matt and asked him to bring home a pizza for dinner.  I didn’t mention the situation because I wanted to hammer out Plan B before I talked to him.

I managed to find some flights that weren’t $1,000 plus - $590 round trip and the times sorta worked out.  We could do it!  We could catch a plane on Thursday and then come back on Sunday.  I’d have to repack our suitcases as I would need to consolidate, but it was doable.  Matt showed up with the pizza and during dinner I explained the situation.  He’d been keeping an eye on the weather too and he had also thought about Washington State / Oregon.

However, everything was ready to go on a road trip – including us.  We were both in the mindset of traveling via car.  I had a huge bag of snacks, a case of water, and a bunch of supplies to make our road trip less horrible.   We checked the weather after dinner.  Thursday and Friday were looking pretty good.  We could just hit three states and then come home early.  That was an option. 

After a lengthy deliberation, we agreed to pack up the car and head out right away.   Matt had gotten gas before he came home, but we still had to stop at the bank.  We were on the road by 7:30 PM.  I had found a drop zone in Ohio that was open on Thursday morning.  So, we’d drive as far as possible and get a hotel with hopes of getting to the DZ before noon.

With the exception of a series of road construction delays, the drive was uneventful.  While I was driving, Matt looked for a hotel along the route.  We decided to stay at a Best Western in Charleston, WV.  That would put us just over the ½ way point.  When we got off the exit for the hotel, it was approaching midnight.  We were both pretty tired.

As we drove through Charleston, we were surprised at how trashy it was.  We were supposed to be a mile from the hotel and we were driving past prostitutes and drug dealers.  Seriously…prostitutes.  I am not kidding!  And DRUG DEALERS!  We were in a super scary part of town when Siri chimed in “You have arrived at your destination”.  Matt looked at me and he said, “Don’t stop!”  It was a clearly a shady part of town.  I asked if he had typed in the wrong address and that’s when he realized that the hotel was located on East Washington Street – not West! 

I turned the car around and headed in the opposite direction.  Oh look…drug dealers and prostitutes.  Hmmm…not as shocking the second time around.  As we got closer to our hotel, things started to look less sketchy.  However, when I pulled in the parking lot, there were two drunk women sitting on the curb and a few other people just walking around.  It was 12:30 AM on a Thursday morning.  What’s up with these people?  Why aren’t they sleeping? It’s past bed time.  In addition, there were multiple signs in the parking lot advising that the hotel took no responsibility for damage to your car or loss of your personal belongings.   A sarcastic “Wonderful” goes here.

The Best Western wasn’t a cheap hotel – over $100 with tax, but we were not impressed.  The air conditioner was not working very well and the pillows were horrible.   It was after 1 when we finally went to bed.   Of course, it was a sleepless night for me as I have a very hard time sleeping.  I got up several times and at 7:00 I decided to get in the shower. When I was done, I woke up Matt.  He wasn’t ready to get up, but we didn’t have the luxury of sleeping in.  He got in the shower.

While I was dressing, I noticed a spider hanging down from the ceiling.  It had made a little home in the corner where the ceiling meets the wall.  There were dust deposits in the intricate design on the lamp and the base boards weren’t clean.  It was obvious that the cleaning crew did the minimum, but complaining seemed pointless as we were moving on with no ideas of coming back.

The complimentary breakfast wasn’t bad – the hotel standard stuff.  We finished up and hit the road at around 8:30.  We were only an hour or so from Ohio and were on track to arrive at Start Skydiving around noon.  In order to maximize our time, we agreed that Matt would work on his computer while I drove.  This arrangement works out well for both of us as I am a control freak and want to drive and he always has something to do on his computer. 

The disadvantage – there is no one to help with navigation!  This proved to be a huge problem when I missed our exit.  He found an alternative route that added an extra 30 minutes of driving.  Thirty minutes doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re on a trip that is going to be 2,000 miles, you don’t want to add on to it.  I was pissed off at him because he wasn’t helping me.  I missed the exit because I didn’t have an exit number and a bunch of huge trucks were in the right lane and I couldn’t see any of the signs.  I figured he had set his phone so it would tell me when to turn, but the volume was off.  So, I was fuming mad for a while, but got over it as soon as we arrived at Start Skydiving!