TUESDAY-The Night Before...

I'm not a good traveler.

Jeri, my wife, makes sure I get through airports ok, makes sure our room has enough pillows, navigates giant metro systems in foreign countries, all that logistical stuff I really stink at, and worry about too much.

It's usually about this time before a trip that I'm thinking in the back of my mind, "We should really just pass on this." I love October in the midwest, my cat's givin' me that 'you're leaving me, aren't you' look, and there's the persistent tingling in my head that says, 'you're gonna forget to bring something you need, and you're gonna lose something you brought to Paris.'

That's where we're headed this time: Paris! City of Lights! Moonlight on the Seine, great food, great people, great art, great history, great architecture! And I should be really excited because I love all that stuff, but I'm not. I like what I have here so much. Home is so great!

But having gotten over some serious travel concerns a few years ago (we didn't take a vacation the first 13 years of our marriage - just not good at relaxing, either of us) with trips to Banff, Sleepy Hollow, and then Moscow just the other year, we're better, and I don't worry like I used to. When I think of the trip to Paris we're about to take, while there's some seriously cool stuff that you could spend a lifetime visiting and enjoying, that's not what gets me excited about this trip.

I honestly start to feel excited and look forward to Paris when I think about how it's Jeri and I going there. The way we're a perfect travel team with each other and compliment each other so well. When I think of the way we'll just find our way through it and how we always have a good time together, that's when my interest starts to pique.

It's not Notre Dame or the Eiffle Tower or even the great food that gets me going at this point in the trip. It's knowing that part of that happy home feeling is gonna be right there with me and thinking of how for the rest of our lives, we'll just say the word, 'Paris' to each other, and we'll both know exactly what each of us is feeling.

Isn't that why we travel?