Moab, Skydive and Arches

The Karaoke night was an absolute blast with a special performance in the end of "I believe in a thing called love" by a shirtless local guy wearing a blond wig. You can't buy these things with money - you just gotta be there..! btw. check more about Telluride from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telluride,_Colorado - it's an interesting place

I was planning to leave telluride in the morning so that I could get to drive to Moab at daytime and maybe do the skydive on the same day. So when I went to get my computer in the morning from the store it was being fixed I found out that that there was still 3 hours LEFT! (of transferring the data back to the computer) so we decided to kill some time with Mitch and Maya in the local cafe - went for breakfast and killed some more time. (including petting kittens in the face - that's how cute they were ;) So after that three hours I went back to get the computer - and we had still 'about an hour' left.. oh well.. a bit more time kiling and went back in an hour - still about an hour left.. well it was time for lunch anyway. So finally on the 4th time the process was done and I was able to start leaving Telluride. 

Was actually fun to just hang around for the day. Ended up getting invited to come to Georgia by this Irish guy in the bar who'd been hiking for two weeks in the mountains.. the people you meet!

It was close to 4pm when I started driving and it was again an amazing drive toward Utah. I started driving down from almost 9000 feet down (about 3 km), I didn't even realize that we were that high! Driving down the curly roads was as fun as ever, but when I started to arrive to Utah and seeing all the red rocks "growing' in the horizon - man.. that was something. I drove straight to Moab and arrived there when it was dark already. I booked my skydive for the following day so I had the evening to spent. So I found this nice little local place and catch'd up with the blog a bit over a beverage. After it was time to start getting mentally prepared for the jump next day and "hit the sack".

Next day I woke up early and slightly nervous, not as much as I thought that I would've been considering that I was just about to jump off a plane in 10 000 feet (3,2 km). The Skydive Moab is about 20 min from downtown Moab and I arrived there just in time. It wasn't too busy that morning and the weather was perfect. A bit chilly but that's it. I got greeted by Keith from the skydive moab who guided me in and to fill the paperwork/safety video/safety instructions etc. etc. a lots of paperwork before I got to suit up. 

Not me.. :)

After learning to open my arms, kick my legs back and lift them for the landing I had a chance to finally  suit up to my great jumpsuit gear. And granted right after I got my harness on and soon enough I was already sitting in the plane ready to go. On that moment I actually realized that I've never even been on a small plane.. so I got too checks to the bucket list in one!

There was few other jumpers with us in the plane and they left in a bout 5000 feet (1,6km). It was crazy feeling to see the door open and them just dropping away from the plane! few funky flying moves and my guts in my throat we got the door closed and continued climbing up to our jump hight.

this is when we locked the jumpsuits together for the tandem jump. and soon enough it was time to open the door. At this point the nervousness had creeped in, but there was no turning back (not that I would've anyway) inside the plane we shifted back right by the door and then opened it. The wind was cold and strong and the voice of the plane was high. We stepped out on the little platform on top of the wheel. At this point I remember feeling the instincts to "kick in" - i don't want to go out there! and that's when I heard: ready! set! GO! the next moment I see the plane leaving my sight about 120 mph (a bit under 200km/h) and then it was all about falling. The air was cool - it was a bit hard to breath - but the things that you see. Utah is beautiful as it is, but this was something I hadn't seen before. After free falling awhile it was time to open the parachute and down we came.

It really makes me wonder why I waited for this long to do this. But I'm pretty sure it's not gonna take that long to skydive again!

After the skydive I drove back to Moab to figure out an issue with my credit card, which -not gonna lie - could've gone badly wrong. LUCKILY I was able to figure it out and got in contact with the 24hour service of my bank and got the card reactivated! it took me 3 hours to figure it out but worked out in the end.

I really wanted to see a bit more of the canyons near the city and I got really highly recommended to go and drive the arches nature park so I took a drive there. The formations were awesome and actually ended up being the best ones I've seen. There was one in particular that I wanted to see: the delicate Arch, now this is something that I had seen before in procures etc so I figured that It'd be quite an iconic sight to see. It was a bit further hike than I expected but after 40 minutes of walking I arrived to the arch.. it was bigger than I thought and the view around it was something to match! lots of people and very touristy but so worth while seeing it. Probably the greatest natural formation I've ever seen.. now when I think about it..

There was one more thing to do for the day (a long day) which was the climbing invitation I got earlier in Telluride. I still wanted to go and climb or at least see people climbing. But the time I left Moab it got dark already. The place I was headed was some drive away and pretty hard to find. I got instructions from the friend I was supposed to go climb with but in the dark, once I arrived to the area, I could' find the meeting point :( and it was so away from places that there was no network, so we couldn't contact each other either. After circling for awhile I gave up and camped over night in the car.