- Days at Lost Prairie: 4 – Wednesday afternoon through Sunday morning
- Jumps: 10
- Travel time to Lost Prairie: <12 hours… left home in Oakland around 5 a.m., arrived DZ by 4 p.m. Montana time.
- Travel time home from Lost Prairie: much >12 hours… left DZ just before noon Montana time on Sunday, arrived home at 10:30 a.m. on Monday … thanks to a delayed flight out of Kalispell which caused us to miss our connection in Seattle and spend the night at a hotel (paid for by Horizon Airlines, of course).
- Visits to Five Guys in Kalispell: 2, one on the way in, one on the way out. I was (quite literally) giddy when I saw the billboard advertising the (relatively) new location in Kalispell.
- Totally new jumps: 1, the “dueling speed stars” we did when we had 20 people on one plane. Speed stars are nothing new to me, but usually you have video and each team exits separately and the video determines how fast the formation builds. Oh, no, this one was each team exiting simultaneously and building the speed stars next to each other! Too fun.
- Servings of huckleberry ice cream: 2. There’s an enterprising group of kids (supported, I’m sure, by their parents) who come out every year for each afternoon of the boogie with big tubs of ice cream. There’s usually a couple other flavors but the huckleberry is the winner. Overall we tried to stay simple and (relatively) healthy with our food this year – cereal & yogurt for breakfast, PB&J for lunches, and dinners with friends (thanks to Cindy & Doc for feeding us most nights) or from the bar.
- Lowest opening: 1500 feet, which was low enough to get questions from the safety advisor (he thought I was even lower). First jump of the boogie, and I didn’t pull any of that again.
- Bee stings: 1, for the first time in a very long time. Was sitting in a chair with my feet up on another chair and the sucker just slipped up my shorts and bit me on the backside of my thigh. Ouch!
- Trips to McGregor Lake: 2, for fun in the sun and crisp, cool water.
All in all, the boogie was (as usual) a fabulous, relaxing experience. Complete photo set on flickr.
