NC Eatin’: Hoke County

Saturday, July 18, 2009
Aviator’s Grill & Pub
155 Airport Dr
Raeford, NC 28376

This was one of the scariest days of my life.   While I was trying to come up with something special to do for his 30th birthday, I thought, “Oh, gee, wouldn’t it be cool if he could do something off his bucket list?  He’s always wanted to skydive!”  I researched it, and found Raeford Parachute Center in Raeford, NC.  Perfect!  Not only could we check something off Jason’s bucket list, but we could also hit another county!  (Side note – like our shirts?)

We invited about 50 people to a party at our house for Saturday evening, and they were also invited to join us for skydiving.  Six of them ended up taking us up on the offer.  We were advised that we had a noon slot for the class and jump, which, given the 2 hour timeframe they gave us, would’ve been just perfect.  We could eat a late breakfast, drive out, train, jump, grab some lunch, head home, and have a couple hours before the party.  And it would have been perfect if it had turned out that way.  Unfortunately you cannot take RPC at their word when they tell you your group can get through the whole thing in 2 hours unless your group is only 2 people.  I’m not sure why they didn’t tell me that when I asked as we would have taken an earlier slot.  We ended up there for 5 hours.  Ugh!  That said, they were really great.  Very safe and fun.  I’d definitely recommend them with the caveat that you should prepared for it to take a loooong time.  So here’s how it went: