my random ramblingsan infrequent (and these days, mostly Mira related…) blog

got into Detroit late, picked up a car and headed downtown to the Hilton Garden Inn. met Pat & Regan at the Town Pump Tavern and eventually crossed the street to Cliff Bell’s before last call. been far, far too long – was great catching up.

replacing all of the t&g decking on the a-frame ceiling with the construction of the new roof. shocking to watch, but all of the old rotted wood has to go. will look nice up there now when it’s all done, no more water damage. unfortunately, won’t have this kind of light again until i add windows to the north facing walls.

left Salt Lake early and drove back to Ogden for more of the same. 3 more jumps, including 2 4-ways. Jesse figured out how to pack my Safire2 so that it gives me a speedier opening, and it was great on all of the jumps. focused on my landing pattern and hit my target on all of them, keeping myself clean. the Rockwell team was jumping most of the day, and watched some of their impressive jump videos. brought my rig home unpacked to practice packing during the next 2 weeks. managed to catch a rock on my windshield during the drive home and crack it again. that lasted a whole day…

first jump of the day was #50. met another Jackson guy jumping at the DZ, so now i know 3. got my windshield replaced in the parking lot while i was there by a local MMA fighter. 3-way, 4-way and a 5-way during the day. trying to get my canopy dialed during packing so it won’t snivel for 1200′ before opening. left for Salt Lake early, and really enjoyed the time spent with Seth and Britt. had Tibetan take-out for dinner, which turned out to be tasty.

left early, and got to the DZ before closing. Skyler got my rig sorted and the reserve packed – looks good! 🙂 did a 4-way, then got on the last load of the day, a 12 person tracking jump. joined the crew at Iggy’s then crashed at Dave’s.

got to the house before noon for Corly’s (and Arjen’s) 50th birthday party. not surprisingly, the house was gorgeous, and decorated with memories from their travels around the world. helped set up for the party and spent a couple of hours in the pool. enjoyed hanging out with Corly’s family and friends from Holland, then as the party started i got to meet some ex-Baan coworkers that i hadn’t seen in 10+ years. great party, great food. the entertainment was first class from the Latin band Trio Caliente to the Bill Clinton impersonator. i even received a presidential pardon! stayed there until almost 3 am, then got a ride back to the hotel from Agustin. less than 2 hours of sleep before i would be heading back to the airport for my flight home.

late flight into Dulles and taxied to my hotel in Leesburg. would have been nice to drive about 15 minutes further west and see the old house in Bluemont.

the demo started the end of last week, and now it’s taking shape. the trusses on the addition all went up today and hopefully next week the same thing will happen on the a-frame.

3 more jumps, not sure if being away for a while helped (or maybe it was the Soviet round experience ;)), but everything is making more sense and feeling much smoother. having more success with docks and getting more points with each formation jump. canopy flights are feeling more natural and landings are more on target and almost always stand-up or run outs. John lent me an audible yesterday and i used it for the first time today on my jumps. was on the fence about buying it from him until i lost all sense of altitude on the second jump and was only reminded of my breakoff altitude by the alarm in my ear. wrote him a check for it on the way out. 🙂 made it home in time for a run and came upon a large male moose on the trail with a nice set of summer paddles. figured it would be best if i sat down on the trail and let him cross in front of me. was a nice end to a great weekend.

got in Friday night, but the drive started ominously. stopped for gas in Victor, and the truck wouldn’t start, needed to get a jump to get going again. figured i should make the 4 hour drive anyway. woke up Saturday morning and hoped for the best, but more of the same. no doubt the battery. flagged someone down for a jump, and it turned out he was headed to the auto parts store, so got a ride instead. bought a battery, went back and switched it out (glad i keep tools in the truck). bingo! on to the DZ and the next challenge… was expecting to pick up my new rig, which should have arrived while i was in Europe. it didn’t… bummed. Brian hooked me up with a loaner for the weekend though, which was cool of him. did 3 jumps, biggest was a 6-way. early evening went to the wind tunnel for a little more practice and learned how to side slide, then returned to the DZ and caught a beautiful sunset and twin rainbows. hung out for a while with the crew long after the last load, then eventually made my way back for some sleep.