As we approached Wisconsin, Matt looked for a hotel near the first drop zone. He found one 3 miles from the DZ - the Baymont Hotel in Beloit, WI. Although it was late and we wanted to settle in, Matt made time to go to the front desk to complain because our pillow cases looked dirty. When he came back, he had a complete set of sheets. It was kinda nice to know we had clean linens - should we do this at every hotel? Even though we were tired, we couldn’t go right to sleep. So, we turned on the TV – "Harold and Kumar" was on. Since neither one of us had seen it, we laughed and stayed up until we started to nod off. We agreed that we should put it on our Netflix list! (Now that I’m recapping this adventure from home, I realize that I still need to do this!)
On Saturday, we woke up early. Not sure what our day would entail, we decided to have a big breakfast in lieu of the carbs they were offering at the hotel. It makes missing lunch much easier. Matt found another local place – Shortstack Pancake House. The food was yummy, not as well priced as City Lights, but reasonable.
After we were finished eating, we headed over to Great Lakes Skydiving. We didn’t bother to call ahead, as it was Saturday and the weather was looking good. We figured we’d either jump there or head on up to Skydive Milwaukee about 45 miles further north. As we pulled in to the parking lot, we could see canopies in the air. We grabbed our rigs and headed into the hangar. We had no trouble figuring out where to go!
We’ve been so many places, we are never sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised that a number of the locals came to speak with us. They seemed surprised to see “fun jumpers”. One of the video guys walked us over to manifest and made a point of saying that we were experienced jumpers. We got our waivers and started filling them out. After just a short time, 15 tandem students came down the steps. Both of us were surprised to see so many tandem students in such a small place. Their tandem business was booming!
Great Lakes Skydiving has a relatively small packing area in comparison to most drop zones with a King Air. Inside the hangar, they had a huge lounge area for the tandems, a decent size office, and in one corner of the hangar, they had a roped off area for gearing up the tandems. Outside of the hangar, they had three port-a-potties. They were very clean. Apparently, they had been cleaned the day before. It was nice not to be surrounded by spiders and other creepy crawlers.
We received a drop zone briefing and asked if we could do low passes. I can't remember the exact response, but it was something like this: "We don’t normally do low passes. We can, but no one has ever asked." They were completely willing to do whatever we asked – super flexible. One of the tandem instructors told us that Great Lakes is a tandem factory and they don’t get many fun jumpers because everyone goes to Skydive Milwaukee. With that said, it was hands down the friendliest tandem factory EVER! When we explained our quest to skydive in every state, they were excited for us. No less than four people from the staff came and talked to us. They had a female TI and a TI from Australia and so many super friendly staffers.
We geared up and got ready for our low passes. The landing area wasn’t very big in comparison to the other drop zones we had recently visited, but compared to the landing area at Bridge Day, everything is huge. It’s all about perspective.
We boarded the King Air – one of the local guys was manning the door as they were concerned about opening/closing the door. The pilot forgot about our low passes, but given the fact that he rarely did them, we weren’t surprised. They passed the word along to him to remind him we wanted out low and he adjusted his pattern of flight.
Matt was out first. I know this is shocking news to you…NOT! I left the plane with one thought…I am skydiving in Wisconsin! I followed Matt’s landing pattern and I felt like I was coming in pretty fast. It was a little scary! I put my feet together ready for a butt slide, but I ended up swooping and pulling it out at the end for a beautiful stand up landing. The crowded even clapped. Five states in three days! Matt and I did our state high five. Matt’s said, “We got Minnesota!” I laughed, “We’re in Wisconsin.” When we passed by the spectators, one of the guys said, “Nice Job.” After 10 years of skydiving, it’s finally starting to look like I know what I am doing.
Matt’s knee was bothering him so I helped him pack his rig and then packed mine. He started loading the car. It was still early in the day. We checked the weather for Kentucky again and things still didn't look good. Was there some somewhere else we could go? A sixth state?
