Boulder City is only about 20 minutes from the strip (about 30 minutes from our hotel), and Skydive Las Vegas is just outside the city. It shares a strip with a small planes airport, a helicopter tour company and a few other businesses. It's a pleasant drive though, much different than the midwest...desert plains surrounded by mountains. We could already feel the heat, too. Going to be another 100+ degree day.
When we walked into the building, there was already a class of 15 or so people going on. It looks like they have clients constantly moving through a rotation of filling out forms, watching an instructional video, and going through skydiving training, all in one room. They start at 7 am and go until sunset, I believe, 6 days a week (Wednesdays they're closed for airplane & equipment maintainence). And as busy as they were on a Thursday at 8 am, they must have 100s of people come through daily...more on weekends (and that is just the tandem jumps).
John Luvera is the instructor who came out to evaluate me. He will be the one I'll be jumping with. He mentioned that he had taken several quads and paras skydiving and then asked me to describe my level of function. I told him I have decent arm strength but no hand, leg or trunk use. He asked if I could cross my arms across my chest and tip my head back...check. He felt confident he could take me up with the set up they use for people with no leg use. Basically, they will be taping my knees and ankles together and putting a strap around my thighs that will be used to pull my knees up in a bent position. To keep my legs like that, another strap will be used to connect my thighs to my chest harness. He explained that they need to have my legs bent up for the landing, so in my situation my legs will be in that position for the entire dive. The only issue now is that with me in that position, it will make it more difficult for John to manuever the parachute, so it is crucial that there be adequate wind. That considered, he said we can go ahead and schedule our skydive for 7 am Saturday, but to keep in mind that I may go through all the training and still not be able to go if the wind was not good. So we got our names in their books and were one step closer to jumping out of an airplane! (Everytime the next load of divers were approaching the drop zone, someone came in and announced it so you could go out & watch them jump and land. That was nice to see because it gave us a good idea of what to expect)
It was now 9:30 and we were hungry! Jennifer knew of the world famous Coffee Cup Diner in Boulder City which had been featured on the Food Network for their pork chili verde omelet (and she said they had really good Bloody Marys, too). Boulder reminds me a little like Wisconsin Dells back home with all of its Southwestern craft shops (except in Wisconsin they're more Native American) and the diagonal side parking on the main street. It was very small, maybe about 10 tables plus the seating at the counter. We got seated right away and enjoyed a great breakfast.
We weren't scheduled to go kayaking until 2 (we were under the impression the skydiving eval was going to be a few hours), and it was only 11 am, so we decided to take a road trip to see the Hoover Dam which was about 25 minutes from where we were. We had a great scenic view of Lake Mead along the way which is where we'll be kayaking later. Lake Mead is the reservoir for the Colorado River and Hoover Dam. It is actually higher this year because they didn't have as hot of a summer as usual (their hottest temp was 115 and they can get up to 135). The bright tropical blue stood out sharply against the desert rock. Quite beautiful.
Jennifer pointed out hiking trails that replaced the railroad tracks for the trains that use to bring in supplies while they were building the dam. She did the trail with a hiking group and said the trails take you on the mountain side overlooking the lake and go through 4 or 5 tunnels into the mountains, some of which are up to a half mile long (they're not lit though). Although the trails don't have any steep grades due to being railroad tracks, they are loose gravel that covers the railroad ties so probably would be difficult for most manual wheelchairs.
There were lots of tourists visiting Hover Dam. We didn't want to do any tours but the drive around it had some great views and places to stop that were quite accessible (one stop even had porta potties with one being wheelchair accessible).
It was time to head back into Boulder to Desert Adventures, an outfitter and guide company for canoe, kayak, camp, hike, bike, or horseback tours outside the Las Vegas area. We had reservations to rent two tandem kayaks for an afternoon paddle on Lake Mead. DA offers guided and non-guided paddling tours, but we chose to be on our own. Usually you meet them at a specified location and they take you to the put in (of where your tour is). DA is not equipted to shuttle people in wheelchairs, nor do they have any adapted equipment to accommodate someone with a physical disability. We knew this ahead of time because we had several conversations before I got to LV. However, the manage/owner, Izzy, was very helpful and willing to make adjustments in any way they could.
We met Scott at the DA shop (in Boulder) where we paid & signed all the necessary forms. Scott had the van that transported two canoes (for another tour) and two tandem kayaks for us. Since we had our own van, they let us follow him down to Lake Mead right up to the put in. It was all loose gravel/sand right up to the water line. A little hard going with the wheelchair, but better than full sand. We rented two different kayaks, a sit-on-top and an Old Town ocean kayak which has a cockpit you sit down into. I brought my own hand grip adaptations to attach to their paddle because I knew they wouldn't have what I needed. Also, when I kayak I need a lot of trunk support which I get from an adapted paddling seat back home, but since they didn't have one I brought a thermarest camp chair to provide some higher back support. Then we used some blow up floats from DA to stuff along my sides for balance. My friends walked my kayak out into the water to see how stable I was. And well, niether worked to give enough support. All I needed to do is tip a bit too far and I'd fall to the side and risk capsizing the kayak. Plus, it was quite windy and the lake was rough. I could stabalize my self by holding on to the inside edge of the kayak, but that meant I couldn't paddle. Disappointing, but it was better than not going out at all (and this is why we rented tandems because I wasn't sure if it would work).
I was getting too hot also, being that it was 105 degrees. We needed to get out on the water where it would be cooler. We brought a spray bottle to help me cool off, but ended up just dumping or splashing me constantly with water. Scott stayed in contact with us by cell phone in case we needed to get out early which he was under no obligation to do. We had a great time, not able to go as far as we would have liked but it was beautiful out there regardless. When we finished, I mentioned to Scott about the adapted seat, outriggers and paddle grips made by CreatingAbility by Kevin Carr. He said he knew the owner of DA would be really interested in getting some for their outfit, so I'll help get them hooked up with Kevin and hopefully next time I'm out there they'll have them.
It had been a long hot but wonderful day so far. We went back to our hotel to get cleaned up and go out for Sushi at Lili's Aisian Restaurant on Fremont Street. (We had originally planned to go to the Rio Hotel where I heard they had a great buffet, but we were quite tired and decided to stay close to the hotel.) After we ate, we walked down Fremont Street. Freemont Street use to be the original Las Vegas strip. There is still quite a lot going on with casinos, shops, restaurants lining the street. Fremont is closed to traffic (kind of reminds me of State Street back home) and people canvas the entire street. There's live entertainment of ALL kinds. There is even a zip line you can ride that stretches almost the entire length of the street. One of the unique attractions to Fremont is that the entire street is covered with a screen canvas which on every hour a spectacular light show eluminates the whole strip.
It will feel good to sleep in tomorrow.
The journey is a worthwhile. Such an enjoyable vacation.
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