Quiet day yesterday. Ground fog in the morning followed by low cloud. We were on the first load which went off at noon, and got one more before an approaching storm forced everyone into cover. They put the jump ships, and every other plane that would fit, into the hangar. Watching the doors slowly close, sealing us into the vast hangar jammed with gear, planes, and people, it felt like I was in a B movie as the last survivors of humanity took shelter against the approaching Armageddon.
Once the storm passed we were soon up and jumping again. We got 3 more in and I was aiming to get 7 for the day when Tom cutaway. Phil, his niece, her boyfriend and I took off to get him. There was some urgency involved as from what Joanne had seen from the air and what we had seen from the ground it looked he was probably on the other side of the river which has very few outs, and the main was probably in the river.
At the end of a dead end road we climbed over a fence with a "No Trespassing" sign hung on it and headed down a dirt road that was quickly fading to nothing. After passing a couple more barriers hung with various signs all based on the theme of "Hey Stupid, this is MY land, stay the f### out!", we passed a Mercedes Benz parked on what I think may have been a front lawn. Tires flat, covered in debris, apparently having found it's permanent resting place, I thought "at least they seem to have a good grade of hillbilly around here".
The road had become a trail, the trail a path, and the path a deer trail, that was petering out as we approached the dam and I realized we were still a couple hundred yards short of where Tom was. We plowed ahead, through spider webs so thick they were like curtains, dressed in shorts and t-shirts, me in my brand new shoes, raising clouds of mosquitoes, and discovering some kind of stinging plant that made it feel like someone had poured gasoline on our legs. I'm positive I could see alligators lurking on the edge of the swamp as we went deeper and deeper and as I dodged stinging plants, poisonous spiders, mosquitoes, snakes and god knows what the hell else I tried to tried to remember if there indeed were alligators in these here parts. It was when Phil stepped on a board with an old rusty nail sticking up out of it that we decided this was not a good idea, and decided to return in the morning when it was cooler, and with suitable clothing.
When we got back to the truck we rinsed our legs with beer which took away the worst of the sting and headed back to the DZ.
Upon our return we discovered that Tom had been back for an hour, someone having taken a different route in and picked him up right where he landed. He had to scale a tree to recover the main, but the freebag probably went into the river and over the dam. Oh well, when your buddy chops and lands off, ya gotta go look for him, he'd come looking for you.
They held a foam party last night at the Tiki Hut. First you fence off an area with plastic, then take a foam machine and fill it. Then you toss in a bunch of well lubricated skydivers, and you can probably figure out the rest yourselves. Strange customs these Americans, but entertaining to observe from a safe distance.
