The first time I woke up, it was 4:30 AM! I knew that I should go back to bed for awhile. Skydive Oregon wasn't going to be open until 12:00 PM and we were less than 90 minutes away. It wasn't necessary to be up at the crack of dawn.
Unfortunately, my body didn't agree with me - sleep was elusive. At 6:30, I got in the shower and went down stairs to have breakfast. They had a nice selection, but everything I tried was mediocre. While I was eating, I checked Facebook. Skydive Snohomish responded. They'd be opening at 11:30 today.
While Matt was eating his breakfast, I packed our things and loaded the car. It was only 8 AM when we left the hotel. There was very little traffic and we arrived at the drop zone before 10. We'd driven about 200 miles in the rental car (Toyota Camry) and we were both really impressed with it.
What a nice facility! Since no one was around, we went over to the Safeway to get supplies and to use the bathroom.
When we got back to the drop zone, it was very quiet. While we were waiting, I called the drop zone in Idaho to see if they would be open on Thursday. I spoke with a guy named John - they would be open at 10:30. Skydive Idaho was about 430 miles away. If we left Skydive Oregon by 2, we could be over there before bed time. Perfect!
Since Idaho was a go, I contacted Skydive Snohomish again and asked about their hours of operations for Friday. I also decided to look more carefully at Montana. Getting Montana was going to be a long shot, but I figured it was worth a try. The drive from Idaho to Montana was over 500 miles which sounds like a lot, but I knew I could do it.
When I was doing my research, I found two drop zones located on the same airport in Montana - Skydive Lost Prairie and Meadow Peak Skydiving. I called Skydive Lost Prairie first and was informed that after 40 years they had closed the business. What a bummer!
My next call was to Meadow Peaks. I dialed the number and got an answer machine. The message said they were accepting reservations for July 4th - Saturday. I left an extensive message and asked them to call me back if it was possible to jump early on Friday morning.
Even though it was still early, we started getting ready to skydive.
We carefully inspected our rigs to make we didn't dislodge our reserve pins while we were traveling. Everything looked good. AADs on, GoPros charging - now we just needed to get in the air.
A few people showed up and drove around to the back of the building. The first person arrived around 10:30, but no one came to talk to us until 11:15. A woman named Teresa came out to tel us that they were not going to be jumping because Federal Express had "screwed them over". Apparently, they were waiting for an airplane part, but it had not been delivered.
Just like that, my planning seemed worthless. I figured we could make a circle ending in Montana on Friday morning. With our first DZ off the list, we weren't sure what to do. Would it be possible to swing back to Oregon at some point? Should we try to do Washington today?
The DZM told us that they would be open on Thursday and Friday. Since Montana was iffy anyway, we could come back and do Oregon on Friday morning. It made sense to fill out our waivers and get a briefing because our schedule on Friday might be tight. Teresa gave us a tour of the drop zone. They had air conditioned packing, a huge deck, and a club house for the experienced jumpers. The staff was very friendly and the drop zone was clean and beautiful.
We explained our situation to Teresa and she was brainstorming with us to figure out where we could go. I knew of one other Oregon drop zone - Eugene Skydivers, but they are closed on Wednesdays. While we were getting our rigs inspected, Teresa came up with a solution. She called Urban Moore (the owner of Eugene Skydivers). Even though he was closed, he agreed to take us up.
Just like that, we were back on track. Teresa wrote down directions to Eugene Skydivers and Urban's telephone number. We thanked her and headed over to the Safeway to grab some lunch. While Matt was paying, I contacted Urban. He told me that he was expecting us and gave me detailed directions. The drop zone was located just over 100 miles south. Urban said it would take us about 2 hours to get there and he was right!
