Its not hard, just different...

Traveling with someone new has been an adjustment. Not that my new travel partner is difficult, Tyson just took such good care of me before and I was spoiled, just ask his family. Amber does a great impression of Tyson, "hey sweetie", "sure sweetie", "let me get that for you sweetie". That make other people wanna gag type stuff. When we traveled, even on our honeymoon, he would hold onto our travel stuff and as soon as we would get to security he would hand me my passport and boarding pass. As soon as I would get through security he would take it back until we got to the point of boarding the plane. Then out would come my passport and boarding pass. He would always know which gate to go to when we came out of security and say "our gate is this way sweetie". I would usually overpack and he would always be trying to carry my bag, his bag and probably a niece or nephews bag as well, when we traveled with family. He was superman you know, with superhuman strength and so helpful and thoughtful.

As we left a little over a week ago things were different. Alone my bag sat at the front door with no other suitcase or backpack. The pile was missing a staple Orange bag, he has several to choose from. We drove to the Van Nuys Flyaway, something we had done countless times together. The last time I was there he was there and we just left our wedding weekend and we were on our way to the honeymoon. Tyson got in line and purchased our tickets for the bus last time, but this time my daddy jumped in line and got Ash and I our tickets, thank you dad, I needed that. We said goodbye and off we went. I think I was too tired that morning to cry but so much raced through my head. Mostly all the times before I had sat there on that bus to LAX excited for a trip, I was just as excited this time just had that bitter/sweet taste that has consumed much of everything the past few months.

We made it to the ticket line at the airport and I went up up when the lady said "next". I don't think I've ever stood at an airport ticket booth by myself. It wasn't hard just different. Then came the security check point. I pulled out my own ticket and my own I.D., went through and quietly put it in my backpack until I would need both to board the plane. We made our way to the gate and sat down to wait for our turn to board when I would pull that boarding pass and I.D. out all by myself. It wasn't hard, just different. Turns out that I'm can do it on my own and I'm pretty good at navigating my way through the airport. I guess I had a good teacher.

I've had to do a lot of big kid stuff the past few months. It's been such a djustment but Tyson really set me up and taught me so much before he died. I don't think anything is too hard or out of my reach its just different and I'm learning to do it one day at a time.








Boy do I miss that man...