The Tropical Port City of Boston
The above is what the JetBlue pilot called Beantown as we were getting ready to leave last night. It certainly felt tropical with temps in the high 80s and high humidity to boot! We were a bit north of Boston in Pepperell, MA, near the border with New Hampshire (we even stayed in Nashua, NH).
This turned out to be exactly the weekend I needed after the last one went so poorly. Flights were on time, weather cooperated (though it was damned sweaty!), and the jumps were great. We got into Boston at the ass-crack of dawn on Friday after a redeye, picked up our rental car and (after a couple false starts that required us to pay a “stupid tax” of extra tolls) were on our way north towards Pepperell. Since we exited the freeway right near our motel (in nearby Nashua, NH) we decided to check to see if our room was available - fortunately it was so we were able to check in and shower.
Headed out to the DZ (about 15 minutes away), and connected with friends and got ourselves signed in and waivered. I connected with Paul, who was organizing intermediate jumpers, and found myself with a great group to jump with all weekend. There were five or six of us who were always part of the group, and with others joining in and dropping off, the group ranged from 5 to 12, though most jumps were in the 8 or 9 person range. These were exactly the type of jumps I’d hoped to do and I had some great experiences. Got in 13 jumps over the weekend, and had nice landings on my new canopy (finally got to jump it after hooking it up last weekend at Kapowsin).
Friday night we had dinner at the DZ and made it till about 10 before heading back to the hotel to crash (I was impressed we made it that far on a red-eye). Saturday morning we were there in time for load one, and had another fun day of jumps. Saturday night a group of about 30 of us took over a local sushi/teppanyaki restaurant, and had a fun and delicious meal.
Sunday I got four more jumps in, and Sean got three, including his 1000th jump to end the day. He’s really blown past me in jump numbers, though I’m keeping a closer pace now that I’m in a more supportive climate. I was going to be nice and not pie him, but his local wingsuiter friends (who jumped with him on the 1000th) would have none of that and smacked him with whipped cream immediately after the jump. Good times!
Back to Boston for the long flight back to Oakland … on time but … it’s just a LONG flight.