AY & MDOT: We went....

SKY DIVING!!!

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early (which is now a regular with little Maximus!) and headed to Caddo Mills to go jump out a plane. Now as most people would say, especially my dad, "Why would you jump out of a perfectly good plane"...the planes they have I wouldn't classify as "perfectly good". I am just glad I didn't have to land in the plane.

Here is a picture of the plane

Before you go up they go over the procedure and what to expect during the whole experience.

We got to practice our technique

Notice the flat tire above....do you see why I would not want to land in the plane!

As you can tell below - there was only a seat for the pilot - everyone else just crammed in

All geared up and ready to go!

We had such a great time! Matt and I went up in separate planes about 5 minutes apart. The flight up was not as scary as I thought it was going to be. It seemed like a very long flight to reach 10,000 feet. Once you get close they give you a ten minute warning, at this point your instructor triple checks all your harnesses then hooks us up. Then you get the one minute warning, and you begin to think....what am I doing! Before you know it they are opening the door and the camera man is climbing out under the wing to film you jumping out of the plane. The instructor puts his foot out on the step, then I put my right foot out on the step. And for just a brief second I forgot everything they told me to do and cry out "What do I do with my hands?!?!" Then the instructor takes my wrists and off we go!

The first few seconds of the free fall you are just trying to get your barrings. Then you settle in and look up to see a camera guy right in front of you giving you a big smile and another jumper next to him giving you a thumbs up and it seems surreal that you are falling at 120 mph and you are just waving at each other up there. It was such an amazing feeling!! Then you give the camera guy a wave and the instructor opens the parachute. They warn you that it will be a huge jolt since you go from 120 mph to 20 mph in 2 seconds. But it really wasn't that bad.

Then it is all downhill from there. You float ever so gracefully down to the landing site. It is breathtaking the views and the stillness that you experience up there. The instructor let me guide the parachute to the landing site. We practiced the landing, where you stop the parachute in mid air, so it seems that for an instant you are standing still in the sky. Such an amazing feeling! We ended up being right on track for the landing site and had a perfect landing! It was so much fun! Matt & I both agree we would do it again!

Matt's landing