Hi Ziners, Recently a bounced email caused the disconnect of our membership in TheTravelzine, so, as we reconnect, we'll take this opportunity to introduce ourselves. Here's a new introduction for longtime members.

My wife, Maxine, and I live in Southern California with our two sons. We both love to travel, and the kids are beginning to now that they're past the teenage years.

Our favorite destination is Europe, and we starting going regularly after I recovered from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1986. We decided that life can be too short to wait for retirement to travel. We've been to France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland and England, where Maxine has many relatives.

Our travel had to take a pause last year, following Maxine's diagnosis of a different type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It's bizarre - and totally random. It's not contagious, hereditary or anything like that. We have since become very active in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and happily resumed our travel through their Team In Training program where we do marathons as a fundraising tool. We did the Dublin Marathon last October, and took an extra week to travel around the southern coast of Ireland.

We've been back to England and Scotland since then, and planning France/Italy for next May. Thanks to all of your stories and ideas - it's made our travels even that much more enjoyable. -steve

Mods' Note: We wish you good health and happy travels! Good luck, Don and Linda