Groggily I reach for the phone... can't be the Czech again, can it? It's a woman. The same one who reluctantly agreed to my 11 o'clock slot for a Sunday skydive. The winds are already up to 25 mph and predicted to go up to 40 mph by 11 am. The sooner we get you down here, the better our chances of dropping you out of the sky. I sigh and wonder just how badly I want to do this. Badly enough.
My bag duly deposited at the bell desk at Caeser's Palace, I warn him I only have a UK mobile before his wide grin alerts me to the classic I need your phone number flirt. Sleep. I need more sleep! I get to Bally's ten minutes ahead of time and squint at the limousine parked in the driveway. Yep, the license plate says JUMPER and the windows scream Las Vegas Sky Dive. Must be my ride, so I amble over as nonchalantly as my embarrassment will allow to be ushered into the back. Great, I'm special, the only one for today and I lean back getting comfy in the vast interiors for my 25 minutes sojourn away from Vegas to Jean airstrip.
Clearly, the shop is open just for Ms. 11 o'clock on a Sunday. The woman who called me, limo chauffeur, diver, pilot and yours truly. I've already signed away all my fundamental rights and double signed 'it may result in death' on two different forms and then gag at the dust that rises from the overalls I'm handed over. Apparently, the only function this serves is to keep my clothes clean. Riiiight! Luckily, I'm fairly blase about protocol and saunter purposefully towards the little plane sans any briefing. We're off, and in a bit, the shutter is opened and I get my first taste of flying at 5,000 to 15,000 feet in a plane with no door. It's thrilling and the vastness of the arid landscape is stunning. The wind has already picked up and soon, the temperature drops as we climb higher and Jace points out Red Rock, the whorehouses on the other side of the canyon, Lake Mead and familiar instructions on the jump, with the proviso that he'll tell me the rest when we're parachuting down.
It's a bright sunny day with nary a cloud, so very different from my first jump, and oddly enough, I find a few butterflies running around my stomach. Hmmmm. Interesting. Last time around, there were none. This time I can see the ground below me the entire way, feel the wind slapping against an outstretched hand, feel the cold air cutting through the overalls. Nearly there, so we scuttle to the edge of the plane, and a bloomin' countdown. 3-2-1 and whooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....... we tumble of the edge into bright sunshine and blue nothingness going around in circles before face down in the fall position. Before I can digest the fact that this jump lacks the sheer adrenalin and excitement of the last one, the chute deploys and my thoughts are cut short by a rude yank. Ok, it's still too short, but I am surprised by the ordinariness of the experience, and marvel at the boys skill as he combats the strong winds to direct us to the drop site.
Naturally, he's been doing it since he was a boy, 16 years along and the parachute ride is more fun than the jump (I know, utterly ridiculous!) and I feel like a bad heist film in the making as I contemplate the traffic on the highway below us, flanked on either side by parched wide space, sure we're going to miss the drop zone altogether. The wind keeps pushing us away and I'm dubious as to whether we're actually making any progress on our descent, but the trucks get bigger along with the spots on the square that await us. Eventually, Jace maneuvers us down (yes, he did mention the feet off the ground bit), and it takes him, and the two others to slow us down and pull the chute to a stop on the ground, as the wind callously whips all of us around. I still have a very large grin on my face as we ride back to the base, Jace and pilot speeding away on their motorbikes as I glide by in my limo.
Clearly, I'm going to have to give this another go to sort out my feelings about sky diving. From sheer euphoria, shaking excitement hours later and I would do this every week if I could afford it to hmmmm, ok, that was nice but don't need to do it again. Very peculiar. Till jump 3, I guess....
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