I wrote of “jet lag” yesterday, but I really should have called it a “travel hangover,” adapting from a hectic adventure schedule in Thailand to life again as a homebody. I’m back in my office chair after a 3.1-mile run. It was much less painful than yesterday but still relatively slow. I still feel sluggish, but at least there’s some initiative. All I did yesterday was watch movies, including Logan’s Run, The Third Man, and Strangers On A Train. Today, I plan to be much more constructive and perhaps even finish my taxes and print out copies of our newly written wills. I have ten days until we hit the road again.

Yesterday, I had to make an unexpected change to our return trip from Chicago a week later. American Airlines eliminated their direct flight back to Portland, so we’ll have to fly through Dallas on the way back. It’s just one more hassle to deal when you leave the comforts of home, because it adds about 3 hours to our flight time including a layover. We sure had our share of those last week in the 36 hour traverse from Phuket to Portland. Fortunately, there’s a lot more to do in airports these days. As you travel around the world, you literally hop from from mall to mall. It sometimes seems like the airlines are paid a commission on retail sales to keep you there as long as possible. At least we still have a direct flight there.

According to Drifter Planet a “Travel Hangover” is “that feeling when you return home from traveling and feel your life will end if you don’t go back.” I’m at least retired and continue to be “on vacation” when I return, unlike my wife who has to go back to work for a few more years. I don’t know when we’ll “go back” to Thailand because there are too many other places we want to go. As I continue to refer to the 1000 Places To See Before You Die calendar on my desk, I realize that there are so many places that I’ve yet to visit. We do have a trip planned to Egypt next year to see The Spinx as offered on the first day of this week’s destinations. Other yet to be explored sites shown include Denmark; Iran; Argentina & Chile; Colombia; Port Antonio, Jamaica; and the Maldive Islands. We did spend some time in the Montego Bay, Jamaica airport (or should I say mall) a few years ago. Although I can technically mark that spot on our travel map, I can’t really say that I experienced much of this island that has always been a bucket destination for me. I guess you could say that I’ve been there but haven’t done that. The same is true for last week’s airport visits to Tokyo and Seoul.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever had the “feeling that my life will end if I don’t go back” with anyplace we’ve ever visited. I always assume that I will eventually get back there again, but if you want to see the whole world you have to keep moving on. My personal definition of a “Travel Hangover” is more like that hollow feeling when one journey ends and the next one has yet to begin. “Jet Lag” is often a temporary souvenir of any long journey. I’m glad its immobilizing effects are gradually wearing off, but the actual “hangover” won’t end until next weeks adventure actually starts.