Number 26: Go Skydiving, Part 2

 Hello Faithful Readers, I apologize for the month-long hiatus of the blog! But I'm happy to say that I'm back in action! You may ask, "Erika, what have you been doing that has been keeping you from blogging for us?" Well, friends, you'll have to wait a few more days to find out about what fun and crazy shenanigans I've been up to... but for the time being, I'd like to tell you about what I did ONE YEAR AGO this very week...

It was very appropriate that ML was visiting my in Chicago this week, because one year ago this Tuesday... the two of us did something rather crazy. We jumped out of a plane. What? Okay. So shortly after I received the book that inspired this blog, I received a Groupon offer inviting me to jump out of a plane. So I purchased two vouchers. Six months went by and I still hadn't used them and they were about to expire, so we made a date to go. We drove up to Pepperell, MA, in totally great spirits, not really thinking about what we were about to do. Until we pulled into the parking lot.

The place is literally a huge field at the end of a dirt road with random, low buildings scattered about in between collections of old furniture. And dogs. There were dogs everywhere.

Because of weather conditions, sometimes you have to wait around a bit before you take off. So while we waited to be outfitted in the sexiest looking gear you can imagine...

We still had plenty of time to get nervous.

But after watching so many people go up and down, our names were finally called. We took deep breaths, got strapped to our instructors. And started to board the plane. Which was... slightly larger than the one my Barbies rode in as a kid.

Our tandem partners were amazing though. Mine was named Taco, and was much more competent than The League character who bears his same name. When it's time to go, you really don't do much. You are completely connected via harness to your instructor and they do most of the work. You walk to the edge of the plane, put your toes on a line, and before you know it, you're airborne. Free falling is the worst part because there is so much wind, but after I pulled the cord on the parachute (which Taco said was one of the smoothest first timer pulls he's ever had... yep, I'm a natural!), gliding to the ground is incredible. We went on a really clear day so you can see for miles. Taco knew a lot about the landscape so he pointed things out to me - like small towns in MA and the NH border. One of the craziest things about descending is that you can feel the heat rise as you get closer to the ground. We went on a disgustingly hot day and it was downright cold when we jumped, but we were back to sweating once we landed on the ground. Besides the experience, we got a really sweet looking certificate proving we were crazy enough to jump into the sky... and a story we'll never forget.

Funnily enough, two days after that... (if you're counting that's one year ago today) I boarded another plane. This time I didn't jump out of it, but that story ends in a giant leap as well. When that plane landed, a little town called Chicago. I guess you know how that story ends...

Happy Friday,  Readers!
xoxo,
E