Plenty of room, no more weight!

With three of us traveling, we have six suit cases we can check at the airport. Each one has to be 50 pounds or less, but we will be paying to have them up to 70 pounds. The problem we've run into is that the books weigh enough that we've reached the weight limit without reaching the space limit of the suit cases.

We are trying not to have books bounce around all the way to the DR, so we've done some creative packing. We've done a few different things, among them:

• Putting some of the packing material in the suit cases to fill the empty space
• Using donated quilts as packing material
• Shuffling books between suit cases to balance out the weight

The problem is that you have to know how much each suit case weighs. We don't have a big scale, so the way to get the weight is easy, but a pain. First, weigh yourself (Shanlee did this). Then weigh yourself holding a suit case, being sure not to drop the suit case on your toes, leg, or other objects in the vicinity. Then subtract your weight from the second measurement. Vois la! You have the weight of the suit case.

This process went on for quite awhile, until we had five suit cases at 65-70 pounds each, and one at about 35 pounds. Now we get to pack our clothing and toiletries into carry-on bags. That should be fun. We don't have much room, but the most important thing is to get the books there - we'll figure out our clothing later.