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of foreign land to take home with me. Whatever the reason, I have far too many suitcases. And I don't care.

The depression deepens as airport morning arrives, boarding begins, and the plane leaves the tarmac. I try to offset the swirling doom by reading, playing a computer game on my laptop, sleeping, and eating. The eating part is always a bad idea since I know my jeans feel much too tight (foreign food always tastes better than food at home) and I know a 5-day fast is necessary in order to comfortably fit into them again. Shoot, no more chocolate cheesecake, black and white iced cookies, rich creamy risotto or gooey spicy Italian sausage pizza for awhile. A long while.

The plane lands, we retrieve our battered suitcases, pull our frigid snow-covered car from its spot at the Park n Fly, and begin the trek home. There I go through piles of mail, pet the cat, check the fridge for cream, pet the cat, pet the cat again, and unpack the suitcases, not necessarily in that order.

The next morning comes and I can barely get out of bed. I check my email hoping for something, anything that will obliterate the wretched feeling. And there it is-an email from one of the travel sites I am registered with, gesturing with its come-hither words like "fly for less" and "adventure of a lifetime" and (here's the big one), "on sale." The drug takes hold, my mind flushes with anticipation and the dark clouds begin to clear.

We travel junkies are in good company. I think the Columbuses, the Hudsons, and the Erik the Reds, those ancient explorers of old, who believed there was something else on the other side of the ocean, something they just had to see, and something that nothing would stop them from visiting, all suffered from post trip depression. In spite of questionable transport, in spite of language barriers, in spite of forty-foot waves, once back home, they'd turn right back round again and head out to sea. Post trip depression wasn't an end for them; it was a beginning for their next adventure. And lucky for us, otherwise the wonderful world we so love to travel would never have been discovered.

So, as modern day Columbuses, let's do our part and plan that next adventure. After all, the explorers spent so much time discovering the world - wouldn't we be insulting them by not going out to see it for ourselves? Sounds like a plausible excuse for more travel to me.

Oh, I must run. I have email!

Learn more about this author, Sheree Zielke.
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