Tuan Nguyen - Day 1,2,3
On Day 1, we (Slater, Eli, Nate, and I) all met at Eli's house in the morning before embarking on a drive to E-Town with Eli's dad. Once in E-Town, we went to Skydive Kentucky. Before we could begin our training, we had to watch a long video of an attorney speaking and reading us some of the risks we had to be aware of. We then had to go through and fill out a very long and thorough contract which we had to sign and initial many times to waive our rights to litigate. Admittedly, I had some second thoughts during this stage of the process, as we had to sign off on our awareness of the possibility of negligence (for example, the instructor releasing the parachute too late) and gross negligence (for example, the pilot forgetting to fuel the plane). However, we all ultimately filled out the waivers and moved onto the training part of the process. In the class, the instructor explained the purpose of the different pieces of equipment: the altimeter (which acts as a sort of watch that displays the altitude), the drag chute (which the instructor pulls at the beginning of free fall to limit speed so that the main chute doesn't catch on fire when we pull it), the main chute (which I pull when the altimeter reads 5500 feet), and the backup chute (which deploys automatically at a certain altitude, or the instructor pulls if the main fails). The instructor also went through a few of the physical motions we would have to carry out, so for example, right before exiting the plane, we are supposed to arch our backs and lean our heads back.
There was a good amount of waiting, but eventually it was our turns to dive. We could only go two at a time, so Eli and his dad went first while Nate and I were to go 2nd (Slater was only 17, so could not participate in a dive). It was pretty scary from the ground seeing how high up their plane was going and how small and distant their little bodies and parachutes looked as they descended. However, I ultimately found their successful run comforting, so when it was our turn to put on the jumpsuits and board the plane, I was cautiously excited. Our instructors seemed very confident and in general were very comforting. I had a slight moment of pause when after putting on our gear one of them commented, "I feel like I'm forgetting something," before shaking his head and walking away, but I would say they both did a good job of calming my nerves overall. I felt pretty focused and nervous as we ascended, and specifically remember looking down when our altimeters read 2000 feet, shocked by the sight of how high we were, only to turn to Nate and mouth the words, "We're going five times as high as this." When we got to 10,000 feet, Nate was up first. After I saw his body hurl out of the plane and disappear into the distance, I felt incredibly nervous. But when it was my turn, I scooted and inched over to the edge and arched my back and crossed my arms. There was a brief moment where I was hanging out of the plane, only attached by a harness to my instructor who was still seated inside. Afterwards, he began a quick countdown and pushed both of us out of the plane. The free-fall felt surreal, and the wind blew back in my face with incredible amounts of force, morphing my mouth and skin. I paid attention to my altimeter, and at 5500 feet my instructor tapped my side and I pulled the chute. Afterwards, it's a much slower descent, and you get to sit and steer the parachute while looking down at the almost unbelievably small landscape. After landing, we all grabbed food and drove back to Louisville.
On Day 2, the 4 of us met at Nate's house and boarded into his mother's Toyota Sequoia. We drove to Walmart to grab some camping materials such as firewood and hotdogs which we were planning to cook for dinner. I also purchased a stuffed dog, which I named Shaun (after Shaun White). After Walmart, we continued our drive to Red River Gorge. Upon arriving at the gorge, we stopped for a bathroom break at a log cabin looking building. We went inside, and actually met a couple of nice guys who worked there as rock climbing guides, who gave us some tips and maps for our hike, and offered us free shirts and tank-tops they were trying to get rid of to clear inventory to make room for a new stock. We then drove to the entrance to the hiking trails, and began our hike to the Natural Bridge. On the Bridge, we were able to hang our feet over the edge of the exceptional height and look out over the surrounding wildlife. After we filmed ourselves on the bridge and exploring the surrounding area, we hiked back to our car. We drove the car to a campground, and set up our Eno hammocks before attempting to start a fire. Our attempt was surprisingly successful, and we started to cook our food. At this point, we realized that we had forgotten to buy skewers for our hotdogs at Walmart. We attempted to use various twigs on the ground with varied results before eventually walking to a neighboring campfire and asking if they had extra skewers, which they did and graciously lent to us. We had a pretty filling dinner and grabbed our blankets to bundle up in our Enos. It was still pretty early, but it was incredibly dark outside and we were all tired. We talked for a bit before falling asleep. At around 2:30 AM, I woke up, having a bit of trouble sleeping. I had not done a very good job of wrapping myself in the blanket, as well as feeling a bit cramped in my Eno as Shaun had joined me inside. I was very cold and that only grew worse when the weather turned against us. At around 3, it began to drizzle and my coldness was beginning to be joined by wetness. The rain continued to ramp up, and not too long after it started, the rain was coming down pretty hard in the form of small frozen pellets. The rest of my group started to wake up one by one and we all grew more and more panicked, eventually deciding we couldn't sleep outside anymore (me being particularly in protest of staying outside). We jumped out of our Enos and retreated to the car. We warmed up the car for a bit, before turning it off and all curling up in our respective seats to finish out the night.
On Day 3, we woke up to see our car and the campground canvased in a blanket of snow. We got out, packed up all of our stuff, and began on our way to Glasgow, KY. The drive took about 3 hours, and we went to Ralphie's Fun Center. which was a giant "fun center" that offered a myriad of activities to participate in. We purchased wrist bands which allowed us to go to unlimited activities, and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves as little to no people were there. We filmed ourselves bowling, mini-golfing, roller skating, and playing arcade games. We also participated in an Escape Room similar to Breakout Louisville, in which we posed as superheroes tasked with saving Glasgow. Unfortunately, we failed the puzzle and Glasgow fell to the doom of the Puzzler. After fully taking advantage of all of the activities at Ralphie's, we left Glasgow and began our 2 hour journey home.
There was a good amount of waiting, but eventually it was our turns to dive. We could only go two at a time, so Eli and his dad went first while Nate and I were to go 2nd (Slater was only 17, so could not participate in a dive). It was pretty scary from the ground seeing how high up their plane was going and how small and distant their little bodies and parachutes looked as they descended. However, I ultimately found their successful run comforting, so when it was our turn to put on the jumpsuits and board the plane, I was cautiously excited. Our instructors seemed very confident and in general were very comforting. I had a slight moment of pause when after putting on our gear one of them commented, "I feel like I'm forgetting something," before shaking his head and walking away, but I would say they both did a good job of calming my nerves overall. I felt pretty focused and nervous as we ascended, and specifically remember looking down when our altimeters read 2000 feet, shocked by the sight of how high we were, only to turn to Nate and mouth the words, "We're going five times as high as this." When we got to 10,000 feet, Nate was up first. After I saw his body hurl out of the plane and disappear into the distance, I felt incredibly nervous. But when it was my turn, I scooted and inched over to the edge and arched my back and crossed my arms. There was a brief moment where I was hanging out of the plane, only attached by a harness to my instructor who was still seated inside. Afterwards, he began a quick countdown and pushed both of us out of the plane. The free-fall felt surreal, and the wind blew back in my face with incredible amounts of force, morphing my mouth and skin. I paid attention to my altimeter, and at 5500 feet my instructor tapped my side and I pulled the chute. Afterwards, it's a much slower descent, and you get to sit and steer the parachute while looking down at the almost unbelievably small landscape. After landing, we all grabbed food and drove back to Louisville.
On Day 2, the 4 of us met at Nate's house and boarded into his mother's Toyota Sequoia. We drove to Walmart to grab some camping materials such as firewood and hotdogs which we were planning to cook for dinner. I also purchased a stuffed dog, which I named Shaun (after Shaun White). After Walmart, we continued our drive to Red River Gorge. Upon arriving at the gorge, we stopped for a bathroom break at a log cabin looking building. We went inside, and actually met a couple of nice guys who worked there as rock climbing guides, who gave us some tips and maps for our hike, and offered us free shirts and tank-tops they were trying to get rid of to clear inventory to make room for a new stock. We then drove to the entrance to the hiking trails, and began our hike to the Natural Bridge. On the Bridge, we were able to hang our feet over the edge of the exceptional height and look out over the surrounding wildlife. After we filmed ourselves on the bridge and exploring the surrounding area, we hiked back to our car. We drove the car to a campground, and set up our Eno hammocks before attempting to start a fire. Our attempt was surprisingly successful, and we started to cook our food. At this point, we realized that we had forgotten to buy skewers for our hotdogs at Walmart. We attempted to use various twigs on the ground with varied results before eventually walking to a neighboring campfire and asking if they had extra skewers, which they did and graciously lent to us. We had a pretty filling dinner and grabbed our blankets to bundle up in our Enos. It was still pretty early, but it was incredibly dark outside and we were all tired. We talked for a bit before falling asleep. At around 2:30 AM, I woke up, having a bit of trouble sleeping. I had not done a very good job of wrapping myself in the blanket, as well as feeling a bit cramped in my Eno as Shaun had joined me inside. I was very cold and that only grew worse when the weather turned against us. At around 3, it began to drizzle and my coldness was beginning to be joined by wetness. The rain continued to ramp up, and not too long after it started, the rain was coming down pretty hard in the form of small frozen pellets. The rest of my group started to wake up one by one and we all grew more and more panicked, eventually deciding we couldn't sleep outside anymore (me being particularly in protest of staying outside). We jumped out of our Enos and retreated to the car. We warmed up the car for a bit, before turning it off and all curling up in our respective seats to finish out the night.
On Day 3, we woke up to see our car and the campground canvased in a blanket of snow. We got out, packed up all of our stuff, and began on our way to Glasgow, KY. The drive took about 3 hours, and we went to Ralphie's Fun Center. which was a giant "fun center" that offered a myriad of activities to participate in. We purchased wrist bands which allowed us to go to unlimited activities, and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves as little to no people were there. We filmed ourselves bowling, mini-golfing, roller skating, and playing arcade games. We also participated in an Escape Room similar to Breakout Louisville, in which we posed as superheroes tasked with saving Glasgow. Unfortunately, we failed the puzzle and Glasgow fell to the doom of the Puzzler. After fully taking advantage of all of the activities at Ralphie's, we left Glasgow and began our 2 hour journey home.
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