It never fails. Every time I travel the symptoms appear about 36 hours before I leave Maine. This time it began last Monday night with a sore throat as I was busily preparing to take off for my Thanksgiving holiday in Ohio. Between driving my cats to one house, my dogs to another, picking up the turkey and the rental car and packing my clothes — my immune system began to fail me. I brushed it off and convinced myself I would feel better the next morning when the packing was finished, but as usual I was wrong.
    Tuesday I felt much worse, so I decided to visit our neighborhood herbal tea shop, Homegrown. Proprietor Sarah Richards has a special tea for sore throats called Sore Throat Tickle and A Kiss, and I was sure her concoction would have me on the mend in no time. It was to late for her hardcore tea called The Flu Shot, which contains an entire clove of garlic and is pretty much guaranteed to keep the shooter in perfect health. The only catch is the timing. The Flu Shot must be taken at the first sign of sickness, I had already passed this point and therefore was not a good candidate for this herbal potion.
    After all, it was Sarah who gave me the sore throat tea and a bottle of garlic pills with the instructions to take 10 a day for three days before my trip to the US Virgin Islands earlier this year. As usual a few days before our departure I fell ill, but I followed her instructions, and by the time our plane touched down in St. Thomas a few days later I was feeling as good as new.
    Not this time. I downed two sore throat teas and purchased the same bottle of garlic pills, which may have prevented me from getting much sicker than I actually am, but the symptoms kept coming. By the time we hit the road, literally we drove for 13 hours, I was downright miserable.
    However, I was not going to let a little thing like a sinus infection and sore throat slow me down, so I pretended to feel fine. Mind over matter. This worked until I arrived back home in Maine Sunday night. While in Ohio I helped cook Thanksgiving dinner, visited family and friends and even went for an evening stroll to see the Lights Before Christmas at the Toledo Zoo in 20-degree weather. As soon as I got home I immediately felt the weight of pretending to be well for four days and went straight to bed.
    I’m not sure how my body knows I will be traveling, but it’s a pattern you can pretty much set your watch to. I won’t get so much as a sniffle all year, and a few days before a vacation I come down with some kind of mysterious travel bug, which from this point on will be referred to as “travel sickness.” Once on a return flight from West Palm Beach, Fla. I had such a terrible case of “travel sickness” in the form of a sinus infection the cabin pressure on the plane had me in tears. Maybe I should take this as a sign and stop traveling. My body obviously hates it and never fails to let me know.
    I’ve tried all the goofy remedies like Airborne (this does not work), but my immune system seems determined to ruin my vacation every time. This “travel sickness” runs in my family. My aunt has a system to ensure she doesn’t catch germs from other travelers when she flies. She loads up on the saline nasal spray, antibacterial hand gel and even puts an ionic air filter around her neck to keep the “bad air” out of her area on the plane. She also gets a first class seat so she doesn’t have to sit too close to other people who could be sick.
    This seems to work for her. Me, I’m still working on my sure fire system to eliminate “travel sickness,” and with Christmas only weeks away I’ll be traveling again in less than a month. I’m sure I’ll shake this current bug and be restored to health for the duration of November and the month of December, until of course about two days before it’s time to go home for Christmas.
    Then they will appear like old friends I’d rather avoid, the all too familiar signs of “travel sickness.” My throat will feel raw and my ears will plug up. I’ll feel fatigued and wonder how I’ll ever make it through the ordeal. I’ll put on my game face as always and weather the storm until the next trip.