I can honestly say......

Last Saturday morning I got hold of Margaret and she got me settled into the room I rented from her for the rest of January. There are 2 other bedrooms in the place that are rented to a couple of girls that are long term tenants. Diane is staying with me in the room for 10 days, and Beth will be driving in from Palm Springs to use one of the spare bunks on the weekends. I introduced one of the tenants, Nancy, to Beth on the first night, and I guess I didn't mention that she was just passing through because she was caught completely off guard one morning when the short brunette had been replaced by a tall blond. "How long are you staying for?" I'm not sure she believed my explanation that it was all innocent, but she hasn't tried to have me evicted for turning her home into a house of ill repute.

About 20 of us trotted out to a Mexican restaurant one night and after an hour of drinking and eating chips and salsa the waitress came to tell us that the kitchen had caught fire and we wouldn't get our meals. Most of us arrived half in the bag to begin with so it didn't bother us overly much. As Brian Forbes said: "I can honestly say I've had worse meals than a pitcher of Margaritas." So we went back to the Bent Prop for more beer and pizza.


"Hangovers used to be a bit more fun when I was younger." Gordon Pinsent.

Every night here has either started or ended, and on several occasions started and ended, in the Bent Prop Saloon. The only night since getting here I haven't gotten trashed I still woke up with a hangover the next day because the hangover from the day before was so severe it was still lingering. One night after having spent a couple of days doing coach jumps, grateful students were buying me drinks so fast I couldn't consume them fast enough to stay ahead. At one point I had half a dozen double shots of Grey Goose lined up in front of me. That was after I had arrived at the bar drunk. I'm enjoying the company while it lasts, as soon as the Invasion is over the place will empty out and there will only be people around to jump with on the weekends. 

Diane got drafted by Aidan and has been coaching in the tunnel most nights. She's been having trouble with the visor on her helmet, and one night, after it had slammed open several times while she was in the tunnel, it tore off completely, coming back down in a shower of pieces when they shut down the fan.

This morning was the start of the big way camp, which is when the real fun began. I could easily fly any slot on the 30-ways we're doing so I spent the first 4 jumps volunteering to go on the Base in the center to give the less experienced people a chance to try some new slots. That means we fell flat, happy and stupid, until the rest of the group tracked away from us, and then the Base got to play. We'd start turning points with what little time we had left before we too, had to leave. Left hand donut, right hand donut, and then a round was the plan. We got the 2 donuts finished before my audible altimeter started insisting it was time to go, and Aidan shot me a dirty look as I quickly backed away and started turning into my track. I felt a little guilty at ditching the last point until I saw the video. At 5,500 feet we started kicking our feet and everybody leaves. You see us start turning points, and the cameraman keeps filming until he decides he's gone low enough and dumps out his parachute. The last thing you see is us getting smaller and smaller still turning points as the planet gets closer and closer.

The last thing somebody had said to Fuzzy Dave before he boarded a plane a few days ago was "What could possibly go wrong?" When it came it time to dump he had a malfunction and had to cut it away and use his reserve. Earlier today while we were in the loading area he was joking about it, and just as he finished repeating the words, someone shouted and pointed up at another main coming down in a ball and someone flying along under a reserve. Fuzzy quietly suggested that nobody repeat the phrase until the Invasion was over. There have been a lot of reserve rides this week, but with the exception of somebody who waited too long to cut away, and didn't leave enough time for his reserve to properly inflate, everyone has landed safely. That guy is in hospital but will fully recover.

My favorite part of a camp like this is the accusations of blame when something goes wrong, and the resulting denials, and counter-accusations. Diane and I are far and away the two most experienced people on the camp so I've enjoyed myself poking fun at the bone headed moves made by the less experienced. It's all on video, deny it all you want, the only one you're fooling is yourself. Since I had taken Base for the day I got to pick my own slot for the last 30 way of the day. I chose last diver, the very last person to exit from the lead plane. The lineup was so loose that I was all the way back next to the pilot, and by the time it was my turn to charge the  door the Base seemed miles away, and I vented during the debrief, claiming that I had been so far from the door I'd had to take a bus to get there. I think I made my point.

It's Friday night, I've been here for a week, I've got 10 or 11 weeks to go.