Bridge Day!

Hey everybody!
Throwing a post up here to let you all know how much fun Bday was this year. I started the day by driving large passenger vans shuttling jumpers and family members up and down the gorge for the first two hours. That part was so much fun in itself. You get to meet hundreds of people, almost all are fun. You meet jumper's moms, dads, wives, kids and whoever else buys a van pass. You feel like you're driving a tour bus because they ask you all kinds of jumping questions and such. I told stories about Michelle and Logan and made up all kinds of lies and jokes. One lady even gave me a $5 tip! I told everyone about Logan's birth, when Michelle punched me square in the nose, how I just met my Mom and sisters, potty training Logan.... It was great. THEN, after 2 hours of that, my relief driver came adn dropped me off right at the top of the bridge, right at the exit point. Being a staff member, you get to walk right to the front of the HUGE line and go. I got out of the van and jumped off no more than a minute later. How wonderful. I packed up and jumped 4 more times until jumping stopped at 3pm. It was really blissful all day. At one point I realized how really drunk I was with the whole environment, when some jumper I've never seen before in my life offered me a half of a chicken burrito and I ate it without even thinking about it. After I ate it it I realized I had no idea who that guy was. It's just that kind of atmospere amongst the jumpers. It was a downer when the one guy died though. He was a very old timer, like 66, which is much higher than the average guy there. From what I understand, he hadn't jumped in 30-40 years. Some current guys contacted him and he decided to come out to Bday. They tried to get him to do some practice drills but I guess he was a bit reluctant to train. As everyone saw, he seemed to freeze up after he exited and didn't throw out his little parachute until right before impact. Some people were shocked when jumping resumed but I know I was still going. It is a reality check and we all know what the risks are.
I made 5 jumps and there are some pretty good pictures from this website if you guys are interested. It's organized by exit, freefall...and by numbers. I have some good shots (shameless self promotion)
http://www.leisuresportsphoto.com/mp_client/pictures.asp?eventid=0&eventstatus=0&categories=no&keywords2=no&groupid=52&bw=false&sep=false
These pictures are obviously from different angles.

Exit picture numbers
12:40-1:15pm
9139-9141

2pm-230pm
9453-9455

230-250pm
9673-9674

Freefall numbers

9764
0123
0370

Landing number
8034
8033
8343
8541
8671

As you can see I love exiting on my back. It's a hell of a visual seeing the whole bridge fall away from you . Really neat. On the way home I had a blowout in our Honda civic. When I changed the tire, all there was was one of those doughnut tires. Did you know that southern Ohio closes on Sunday. There was absolutly nobody open to let me buy a tire. I drove for the last 100 miles home doing 70 on that goofy thing. Kind of a stressful buzzkill but Michelle napping and Logan was too so I could rest. I went to work today and I was still buzzing. Anyways, that's my story hope you all had as much fun as I did.
CYA!
Mike!