I went skyyyyyydiving

A couple of weeks ago, I finally went on vacation. It was for my best friend's birthday, we went to Las Vegas. When we got there we were flipping through a magazine in the hotel, and Britt came across Sky Dive Las Vegas. I had been planning on going with some friends from work (not Britt she didn't want to) but it fell through. So I joked with Brittany that we should do it. We looked into the prices, and I called. For some strange reason Britt said yes, and I booked the jump. We went and bought shoes, because you couldn't wear flip flops then tried to get some sleep the night before. We had to be at the place at 7:30 am. That is rough for me when I'm not on vacation!

With Britt's trusty GPS thingy we found that aiport in Boulder City. We walked in where they promptly weighed us. We couldn't weigh more that 240 pounds, thankfully we didn't!!! Then they sit you down and watch this video while you sign away all of your rights. We had to lay on this bench thing to practice how to put our bodies when we jump from the plane. The part that freaked me out was when they said, "when its your turn you will sit on the edge of the plane with you feet dangling." What the what, my feet dangling, um no!  

They got us in our jump suits and we sat, we waited. There were three people in the hanger folding up the parachutes. I was thinking they were the instructures so of course they would pack them perfect to save their own hides. But they weren't their job was just to pack chutes, kind of boring if you ask me. There were two young kids who helped us get our suits and harnesses on. They were talking to eachother. One told the other one he had only been there three weeks. Yeah not the sort of conversation you have in front of people who are about to jump 15,000 feet! Surprisingly though we weren't that nervous. There were 5 other people besides us sitting there waiting to board the plane. They singled out this tiny girl who would go first. Thank goodness it wasn't me!

Then they lined us up against a wall while we waited for the instructures. They all came running in from just landing with the others. This short short guy was working in front of me, and all I could think was that he has to take the tiny girl, hes too short to take me! But of course he called my name, I about died! He had a very cool accent that sounded Australian, but come to find out he was from England.

When the plane took off they left the side door open a little. That poor tiny girl was sitting right there the whole time. Scary! Luckily short instructor, Casper was extremely funny. He told me he has lived all over the world, and even jumped onto the beach at night during Carnival in Brazil. He spoke Portuguese. It was funny because he started speaking Portuguese to me, and I understood him, but answered in English! He said he had jumped about 3500 times. All the talking helped calm me down, because as I looked out that window I started getting scared.

 When he started fiddling with the harness I said, "Are you only attached to me in two places, shouldn't you have more?" He laughed and said, "We've only just met Mel!" Then he reminded me that I need to keep my legs together, because we weren't married! Ha, its so the instructor can work around us!

 Britt was a trooper. I honestly didn't think she would go through with it. I thought for sure she would back out, but she did it! Happy Birthday Britt!

 I've seen this type of thing a bunch of times when I fly, only this time I'm not landing with the plane. Holy crap!

 Thankfully Britt went before me! She held onto my knee til the last minute! Then said some things that one might say when they're about to jump out of an airplane.

 I told Casper that I didn't want to hang out on the edge of the plane, that he needed to just push me out. He did! I only felt like I was falling for about 3 seconds. When we got away from the plane, it just felt very very windy. We had to keep our hands on our chests at first, and we started to go head first. That was wierd. I thought we were going to start doing summersauts in the air.

 Then Casper tapped me on the shoulder and I opened my arms. That flattened us out. Phew!

 They told us that the biggest complaint is that people can't breath. So they said to scream, that gets the air moving in the lungs and allow you to breath when going 120 mph! So I screamed!

 It really was windy, and gave those cheeks quite an overhaul

 Weeeeeeeeeeee!

 Then after a minute of free fall, Casper pulled the chute. Honestly that wasn't comfortable at all. The G-forces when that happened freaked me out. But the chute was open and it was time to relax and enjoy the scenery. The part I was most looking forward to!

 Casper had me stear the chute, and spin in circles. More G-forces! I also felt like if I let go I was going to loose the chute, so I gave those things back to Casper.

When I was in 3rd grade I did a report on the Hoover Dam. I've always been fascinated by it, and here is a totally new view! Plus you can see that crazy HUGE bridge that you now have to drive over. I will NEVER drive over that thing! Driving on bridges makes me have panic attacks!

 Since I jumped a lot of people tell me they're scared of the landing. I find that odd, because it was so smooth. We just slid into the dirt! Safely on the ground, I couldn't believe I did it. I've always wanted to skydive, and I finally did it!

 Even though Casper was short, he was so fun and took great care of me. He calmed me down when I needed it, and let me experience the coolest thing thus far!

I ran to Britt once everyone had landed and we probably sounded like annoying girls laughing and squealing. We went back to the building and waited for our pictures. We were soooooo thirsty. One instructor told us that he drinks almost a gallon of water between jumps because he gets so dehydrated. It was probably about 20 minutes before my pulse went back to normal what an adrenaline rush! We chatted with our fellow jumpers, high fived the little girl that went first, and just revelled in the fact that we jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 15,000 feet!

Britt good luck topping this birthday, thank you for going with me!