Friday, January 3, 2014

Golden Birthday

I had my 25th and golden birthday!  I turned 25 on the 25th of October 2013!  Man I am getting old!  But not old in spirit!  My mother has started a little catch phrase that she insists refers to me… “Logan Loves to Live.”  On my golden birthday this year I had already schemed for several months to go skydiving, one of my bucket list items.  My mother had wanted to visit my younger brother Brandon and I sometime this past semester and it ended up that she came to celebrate my birthday with me this year!  We had fun swimming at her hotel and playing cards and going out to dinner.  Then on Saturday morning we got up early and drove the three hours down to Moab Utah so that I could go skydiving! 
I chose Moab because it is in southern Utah where all of the beautiful red rock and incredible arches and towers are situated.  Arches national park was only a few miles away from the airport that I started at.  We got there and had trouble unlocking the gate to get in!  You had to enter the code and push immediately afterwards to open the gate.  But every time we tried the gate wouldn’t open.  But after a few attempts we figured out that we needed to push immediately and it was fine.  Inside the gate there were several hangers but only two of which were open.  Skydive Moab was the first, and the other was another skydiving company. 
Once there they handed me what seemed like a bundle of paper work.  They sat me down in front of a TV and played a short video about skydiving and the risks involved.  Then I basically had to sign my life away that I would not sue the company if something went wrong.   My mom didn’t like all of that but I didn’t really care.  Ever since getting sick, I feel like I have this attitude that even if something did go wrong nothing is as bad as what I’ve been through, so it doesn’t bother me at all to sign all of the paperwork, because I truly believe that nothing bad will happen. 
Then I suited up in this heavy duty blue jump suit.  Remember that this is late October in Utah.  Air temperatures were continually dropping in preparation for winter.  Though I think that the air temperature that day was about 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  Not cold but not warm either, at least for skydiving.  I honestly was a little disappointed with the tandem jumper I was assigned to.  I went up with another girl who was jumping and her tandem partner was even weirder.  They both seemed a little off, just strange, and made lots of weird comments and stuff.  Plus in the video I had them make of the jump they all made weird hand signs and faces too.  But I guess that is what you get in a remote area. 
So we got into the tiny single prop airplane and basically sat in the lap of our tandem jumper.  Once in the air the tandem guy hooked my harness to his so that we would jump together.  It is a pretty small airplane and climbing to 14,000 feet (10,000 feet above the ground) was no small feat for the little plane.  It probably took us fifteen to twenty minutes to get to the right altitude.  Then I was told to open the side door!  It was actually pretty hard to get it open with all of the wind pressure.  But I got it open and stepped awkwardly onto the step under the wind attached to the side of the plane.  I was still attached to my tandem jumper.  The wind was pretty strong!  Then my jumper counted to three and we fell out of the plane!
We did two or three flips and then leveled out, but I told him I wanted more so we started spinning around and around horizontal to the earth!  The view was fabulous!  Red stone for as far as the eye could see!  The distant Colorado Rockies standing tall and impenetrable miles and miles away, with the Colorado River underneath me winding and weaving through the low country of south eastern corner of Utah.  It was fabulous!  And I was moving so fast!  They say we were moving about 120 mph!  We free falled for about thirty seconds and then he opened the chute.  Then I got to float for another two and a half minutes or so.  He let me steer the parachute and I spun us around so that we were almost horizontal we were spinning so fast! 
It was great! When we landed I had to pull my legs up so that we could land on our bottoms into the dirt.  I felt like it was too fast!  I needed more time!  We should have gone up higher!  Think about how cool it would be to skydive with a squirrel suit!  But I went up and landed without problems! 
After my little adventure mom, Brandon, Christine and I all drove down the road and went to arches national park.  It is literally just up the road. We didn’t have tons of time cause we had a three hour drive back to Provo and I needed to be there to host a birthday party for myself.  But we drove through the park in wonder and awe for the incredible rock structures all around us.  They are huge!  And the craziest part is how they tower over you in an arch that really looks like it was meant to be there!  We went on a few hikes and stuff, and it was incredible! But pictures speak better than words!  It was a fabulous birthday!