How do you explain away a 1 yr gap on the resume?

It is a small world and too many of my former colleagues know that I just wanted to take time off to check-out for a bit.

But how do you spin that to an employer?

Update: November 04, 2009.
I can't really lie with some of the more outrageous ideas because they know too many people who have worked with me that they could ask. I couldn't lie about winning the lottery- that would be too easy to be caught lying or having people remember it and forced to continue lying about it.