En route

As I sit in the Washington D.C. airport awaiting my flight to Philadelphia, I thought I would take a few moments to reflect on the day thus far.  My morning was filled with running around to take care of last minute errands.  I was constantly checking my bags to make sure that I hadn't forgotten this or that.  I was allowed to take two pieces of checked luggage that weighed a total of 80 pounds with neither piece of luggage weighing more than 50 pounds.  It sounds a little bit like a word problem.  As I placed each bag on the scale while I was checking in, I was holding my breath!  My rolling suitcase came to a total of 47 pounds and my backpack came to a total of 33 pounds.  Which comes to a grand total of 80 pounds!  This makes me feel as if my packing, unpacking, and weighing the bags at least 10 times was worth it.  

Saying goodbye to my family was hard to say the least.  We walked around together for as long as possible before I had to go through security.  My little brother hugged my waist tightly and cried and told me he didn't want me to go which was almost to much for me to handle.  But he gave me a little frog stuffed animal that we named Joe Gilbert Stiles to travel Guyana with me and keep me company.  My mom cried a little bit and my dad and I didn't cry.  They have been so supportive of my doing this and I don't think I could have done it otherwise.  Thanks family :-)   Thank you also to all of my amazing friends who sent me on my journey with kind words and well wishes.  

My next challenge will be getting that 80 pounds of luggage from the airport in Philly to the hotel.  Here's to hoping it goes smoothly!