When I was planning our trip, we figured we'd go to Mile High Skydiving because it is located north of Denver and only 3 1/2 hours away from Casper. I reached out to one of my Denver friends and she told me that it was open seven days a week - weather permitting. I bought our tickets with plans to jump in Colorado on Wednesday morning. Then, we'd drive to Casper Wednesday evening to meet with the balloon pilot and jump Wyoming on Thursday morning. AFTER I bought the tickets, I discovered that Mile High was not open on Wednesdays. Yikes!

There are a handful of drop zones in Colorado, but only one is open Wednesdays - SKYDIVE COLORADO. Matt called to confirm. Not only were they open on Wednesdays, the drop zone manager, Nate, was very helpful and said if our Wyoming plans fell through they'd work with us to get Wyoming also. Sweet!  

During one of my email exchanges with Nate, he said he could get us in the air around 2 PM. When I wrote back and explained our situation, he told me to show up at 8 and they'd get us in the air before the tandems. Excellent!

Unfortunately, the drop zone was two hours south of Denver. We'd have to leave the hotel at 6 to there on time. That meant we'd be getting less than 5 hours of sleep.

Our hotel room was nice, but the AC was a window unit and it kept kicking on and off. Ugh!  After hours of on again off again, I got out of bed and showered. I was miserably tired. Oh well... 

I got out of the shower and woke up Matt and we packed up. Just before we left the parking lot, I took a picture of the time - 5:55 AM. The hotel had not started serving breakfast. Fortunately, I came prepared with an assortment of granola bars and cashews.

At 6:28, we stopped in Castle Rock and picked up drinks. Water is wonderful, but I desperately needed caffeine!

When we got to the drop zone, it was about 7:45. I found Nate in manifest and he pulled out waivers for us to complete. While we were working on them, he took our rigs to be inspected. The tandems were starting to arrive and he wanted to get us in the air as soon as possible. Sounded good to me!

As soon as we were finished getting ready, we had a drop zone briefing and went on a quick call. Our load would be fun jumpers only as two local guys were doing a wingsuit jump - it would be Nick's first! Awesome!

After they practiced the exit, they boarded the plane and we followed. Our pilot was a woman named Gail. I turned my camera on super early so I could capture everything.

When it was time to exit, Gail opened the door. Matt was out first and I followed.

I waived goodbye as I left the plane at 4,500 feet. Colorado - state 49! We'd been in the state for less than 12 hours. Yay!

Under canopy, I noticed Matt kicking out of line twists. Those were my fault! Last week, I was packing his rig and got distracted. I thought about starting over, but decided it would probably be okay. Next time things feel "iffy", I will start over.

As you can see from the photo above, this drop zone has a large landing area and plenty of outs on and around the airport. 

By the time I got to the ground, the winds were starting to pick up. I didn't get much penetration and came up short of the main landing area. No worries...Nate brought the truck to pick me up.

If I rated our experience at Skydive Colorado, I'd give it an A for sure! Not only was the staff accommodating, the facilities were clean, and the locals were friendly. Check out my Colorado video!

Before we left the drop zone, Nick recommended that we visit Royal Gorge Bridge (about 30 minutes away) before we went to Wyoming. Since we had a little extra time, we decided to go and check it out!