In the morning, we got on the road at 9.  It was an absolutely beautiful day!  As we approached Tennessee, we needed to pick a drop zone. Matt called Skydive Smoky Mountains first because it sounded scenic.  Someone answered the phone and told Matt that they were closed. Apparently, one of their employees was injured so they had to close the entire operation.  What?  Really?  This seemed very bad!  If your entire business hinges on one person, it might be a good idea to have a backup plan! Fortunately, Skydive East Tennessee was open and they were putting up loads.  When we arrived, there were canopies in the air and the sky was mostly clear.  We grabbed our gear from the car and went inside.  Wow!  

For a drop zone with two Cessnas, we were surprised to see a number of fun jumpers!  They had plenty of air-conditioned / heated packing space, real restrooms, training rooms, video editing, etc. We filled out waivers and got a drop zone briefing.  The landing are was less than ideal.  It sat down in a valley with trees on both sides, but it had a nice clear patch of grass next to the grass run way.  The runway runs from northeast to southwest. 

There were a couple of other fun jumpers on our load, but we were the only two getting out low. When I was under canopy, I looked around.  It was such a beautiful day.  There were big puffy clouds off in the distance and we could clearly see the Douglas Lake - south and east of the DZ (visible in the left part of the photo!)

While we were there, we met the DZO - Tim Carlyle - D-2617.  He was a very interesting man with great stories!  When we mentioned we were from Skydive Orange, he asked if we knew Crystal and Wade.  Of course we knew them - Wade was the pilot at Orange for awhile!  It turned out that Skydive East Tennessee was where Crystal got her AFF license and Wade learned to fly!  At one point, Crystal and Wade even lived in a room off manifest!  The DZO had so many great stories, it was hard to leave! 

With the long drive ahead of us, we got on the road soon after packing our rigs.  We stopped for an dinner at El Toreo in Roanoke.  Mexican is usually a pretty safe bet, but I learned a valuable lesson. Stick with what you know!  I decided to try something different and was sadly disappointed when my food wasn't nearly as good as Matt's!  Our dinner was expeditious and we were back on the road quickly.  Fortunately, our ride home was uneventful.  We were home in time to watch a movie and still go to bed by midnight!