{"id":5161,"date":"2011-03-04T03:29:12","date_gmt":"2011-03-04T03:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/?p=5161"},"modified":"2017-07-22T14:33:28","modified_gmt":"2017-07-22T13:33:28","slug":"day-230","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/expedition-updates\/day-230\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 230 : The future\u2019s bright, the sky\u2019s Orange"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luray to Fredricksburg (via Skydive Orange)<\/p>\n

High Point: 13,500 feet<\/p>\n

Low Point: Frost bite at zero feet<\/p>\n

No Point: Trying to enforce \u2018No swear Friday\u2019\u00a0\u2013 potty mouthed boys!<\/p>\n

Quote of the Day: Waitress to Steve – \u201cYou look like what I\u2019d imagine a man from London to look like\u201d (while he was wearing\u00a0the three-piece red FTFE suit)<\/p>\n

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Author\u2019s comments<\/p>\n

After\u00a0a few very long days on the road, we were all ready to let rip\u2026rip chord that is. What better way to stretch the legs, blow away the cobwebs and get some fresh air than throwing yourself out of a plane at 13,500 feet? Well that\u2019s what Steve and Val did at Skydive Orange<\/a> anyway!<\/p>\n

While the rest of the crew set up FTFE HQ at the drop zone, Steve and Val were taken through safety checks, landing patterns, wind direction, and how not to fall on their behinds when they got to the ground.<\/p>\n

Val was up first and looked incredibly calm as she walked towards the light aircraft which would take her up to 13,500 for her first tandem skydive. She even cooly gave an interview to a cameraman, telling him about our expedition, while her\u00a0tandem buddy read \u2018Skydiving for Dummies\u2019 behind her\u00a0\u2013 pure class and very \u201con-message\u201d\u00a0\u2013 nice one Val!<\/p>\n

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Back on terra firma, after a perfect landing, Val\u2019s response to her first skydive: \u201cAmaaaaazing! Can I go up again?!\u201d. Suffice to say, I think\u00a0she enjoyed it!<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, and not content with simply jumping out of a plane solo, Steve donned a three-piece FTFE-branded\u00a0red suit for the occasion (generously designed and made by A Suit That Fits\u00a0\u2013 thanks Frank). That, combo\u2019ed with the Tony Hawk-style red helmet they put him in, meant we attracted more than a few raised eyebrows!<\/p>\n

Everyone at Skydive Orange staff was fantastic –\u00a0highly professional, incredibly helpful, and totally behind our cause. The entire Stage 8 crew would like to thank them for a great day, and for allowing us to take over their hanger with our\u00a0laptops, filming and general FTFE admin.<\/p>\n

One thing that I wasn\u2019t quite prepared for on the trip\u00a0was the enormous generousity that\u2019s been bestowed on us at each stage of our journey\u00a0\u2013 it\u2019s incredibly humbling. The Visitor\u2019s Centre at Fredricksburg, our destination that evening, were next to\u00a0offer a helping hand. They\u00a0put in some calls on our behalf, and Pat Gray at the Wytestone Suites amazingly donated a night\u2019s stay to the crew\u00a0\u2013 thanks so much Pat! The Visitor\u2019s Centre also secured us a fantastic deal at a local restaurant\u00a0\u2013 Sullys Steaks and Seafood. Again, thank you to the lovely staff who made our meal in the town very enjoyable\u00a0\u2013 we particularly enjoyed the BBQ beans\u00a0\u2013 and all 13 ingredients that went into them (we\u2019re still smarting that we weren\u2019t allowed to take home the family recipe :))<\/p>\n

And as this is going to\u00a0be the closest I\u2019m ever going to get to an Oscar acceptance speech, I have another thank you to make. I want to give a huge shout out to GetLenses<\/a>, who, on hearing about the Follow That Fire Engine mission I was embarking on,\u00a0generously donated free daily contact lenses to me for the expedition. Great service and great people\u00a0\u2013 thanks Brendon.<\/p>\n

Small town America has been an eye opening delight, and as we head towards the bright lights of Washington DC and New York we\u2019re quite apprehensive as to whether we\u2019ll get the same amount of enthusiasm, support and generousity that we\u2019ve been lucky enough to receive\u00a0so far. We\u2019re hoping it\u2019s even more\u2026<\/p>\n

Check these guys out<\/p>\n

Northern Virginia Tandem Skydiving<\/a> http:\/\/www.skydiveorange.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tandem Skydive Washington DC<\/a><\/p>\n

Several sources\u00a0told us to be wary of discounted tandem skydiving adventures from<\/p>\n

Sportations Groupon Tandem Skydive<\/a><\/strong> and\u00a0Living Social Sportations Tandem Skydiving Experience<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Gem<\/p>\n

[flickr album=72157626087415005 num=30 size=Square]<\/p>\n

Photos by the legend that is Lambert<\/p>\n

[flickr album=72157626087880107 num=30 size=Square]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luray to Fredricksburg (via Skydive Orange) High Point: 13,500 feet Low Point: Frost bite at zero feet No Point: Trying to enforce \u2018No swear Friday\u2019\u00a0\u2013 potty mouthed boys! Quote of the Day: Waitress to Steve – \u201cYou look like what I\u2019d imagine a man from London to look like\u201d (while he was wearing\u00a0the three-piece red […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35],"tags":[45,36,43,38,42,51,50,37,44],"class_list":["post-5161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expedition-updates","category-stage-8-phoenix-to-new-york","tag-a-suit-that-fits","tag-fire-engine","tag-orange","tag-road-trip","tag-skydive","tag-sportations","tag-tandem","tag-usa","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5161"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5910,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161\/revisions\/5910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}