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Mama on the Move - In the Air, above Deland, Florida
By MountainMama | April 16, 2008
MountainMama went skydiving! Can you believe it?
When I was in Hawaii last year, I made the Jungle Trek zipline guy push me off the ledge because I just couldn’t take that first step into oblivion. I really wasn’t sure I’d have the guts to JUMP OUT OF A PLANE!
But I did, thanks to the incredible tandem-jumping staff at Skydive Deland. (Ray, you rock.) They’re calm, cool and collected. They were ultra-patient with my questions, even when I asked my 80th one in 5 minutes. “Ray, how long have you been skydiving? How many tandem jumps have you done? Have you ever broken any bones? Has anyone ever thrown up in air? Has anyone ever fainted?”
In the prop plane, as we were sandwiched in together in rows, me in front of Ray Pope, sitting on the floor between his legs, and Marat Leiras, the photographer and videographer (whose shots you see here), sitting between my legs (you’re all family once you strap on a parachute), I was asking, “Who packed your chute? How high are we now? How much longer is the flight?”
And the clincher: As we’re seconds from jumping, the door is open on the plane, the toes of my sneakers are hanging over the ledge, I ask, “I am strapped to you, right?”
Thanks Georgia Turner, Daytona Beach CVB and all the guys at Skydive Deland for making this truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. MAYBE, just maybe, I’ll jump again. When my kids are old enough to do it with me!
Stay tuned for a video. I’m going to try to load it onto YouTube tonight. I’ll link to it here!
ETA: Yeah, so loading my video is not as idiot-proof as I thought! Perhaps it needs to be compressed or something? I’ll have to ask my techno-savvy husband to deal with it this weekend. Lordy, it is pretty funny. So I do hope I can share it!
Topics: The Cookie Jar |
April 16th, 2008 at
MountainMama - How freaking cool are you right now? You are my hero! Congrats on your jump. You are much braver than I am:)
April 16th, 2008 at
Wow, that looks like fun! Good for you!!
April 16th, 2008 at
YOU rock, Kara! Glad you had fun!!!!
April 16th, 2008 at
That is high on my list of things to do before I die. In fact, skydiving and smoking a cigar are the only two things left on that thrill list … time to start inventing more adventures, I guess.
Congratulations!
April 18th, 2008 at
Kara - You’ve inspired me! LOL
April 23rd, 2008 at
[...] in your life. A wide range of experiences includes hot air ballooning, personal fitness training, tandem skydiving, wine tasting, trapeze lessons, NASCAR ride-a-longs and, yes, spa [...]
April 23rd, 2008 at
You are AWESOME!!!
April 27th, 2008 at
[...] by MountainMama on April 27, 2008 In addition to skydiving and jetboat riding during my research trip to Daytona Beach, Florida, last week, I also got to ride [...]
May 21st, 2008 at
[...] She says that it sooths and calms her before a flight. I wonder if she listened to him before her sky dive? [...]