The Year of Megan: #17 - Go skydiving

There is so much to say about skydiving, but I will mostly let the pictures speak for themselves.

I'm so glad that Amanda and Brooke picked to do this because it was incredible. And just as exciting as I expected it to be.

We went to Chicagoland Skydiving Center in Rochelle. The people there were awesome. Our tandem jumpers were a lot of fun - the perfect people for us since we were goofing around and everything.

We arrived just around 10-10:30am. We signed in, signed our waivers and watched the required safety video. After that, we killed time until we were ready to harness up and go.

We each had videographers who took photos and video of our jump. I wish I could post the video on here. My tandem jumper was Greg - and he was awesome. He was funny and really loved giving all of us a hard time. He said the only thing he needed from me was the "pull the ripcord so we don't die". All of the guys enjoyed joking around. I never once felt worried about my safety or that I was unprepared. Greg said he had been a certified diver since '96 and does 12-16 jumps a day so I was in good hands. In fact, I couldn't get on the plane fast enough.

There is way too much to say on here, so I'm just going to let the photos speak for themselves when I can.

Here are Greg and I getting ready to board the plane. Right before while we were waiting to board, he asked which one of us wanted to jump first - and I immediately said I would! Amanda had already boarded the plane, but you can see Brooke just behind me.

Here we all are on the plane, getting ready to go. In order from left to right - Brooke, Brooke's tandem Tom, Amanda's videographer Wes, Amanda, Amanda's tandem Monkey, my tandem Greg and me. Missing from the photo are Brooke's videographer, Daniel, and my videographer, Carmen. She's the only female videographer they have and she was a little spark plug.

Here Greg and I are on the ride up. You can see how goofy these guys get - crossing his fingers that I remember to pull the cord at the right time. The thing on my hand is the altitude meter so I could see where we were (I barely looked at this since I was looking at everything else).

That is my SUPER CHEESY - I'M SO FREAKING EXCITED smile. I couldn't stop grinning for hours afterwards.

As soon as we hit our jumping altitude (14,000 feet), they opened the door and all the solo jumpers were out before I could blink. Then Greg and I started scooting our way towards the door. We stood up, Carmen positioned herself hanging outside the plane, Greg told me to put my toes over the edge, smile at Carmen and we were out!

Falling at 125 miles per hour is not the most attractive for photos - so please keep that in mind. Here are a bunch that Carmen grabbed of my jump.

I may have this one above enlarged and frame it on a wall.

Cheeks flapping!

Here are photos of me trying to blow a kiss while traveling 125 miles per hour. No small feat!

And goofing off!

Once we hit 6,000 feet, I got the tap to pull the ripcord and away Carmen went.

The rest of the drop down was very similar to parasailing. It's so quiet, Greg and I were just chatting about all the cool things about skydiving. He let me steer, so we did lots of spirals and zig zags and then we messed with "zero gravity" - yanking the parachute so hard that your body floats mid air for a second or two. It was SO cool.

The landing was definitely not graceful. Carmen snagged this photo once we landed.