the Plan So Far

3 nights to go before some of us start the journey. You may be wondering what the plan looks like, to date, so here it is:
The first heat (is it gaggle of goofs?) leaves the DC area for London on Thursday night, arriving at both Gatwick and Heathrow on Friday morning. Once they get their bearings, it's a mad dash out to Southampton to pick up the bus. It's critical that we get the bus on Friday, before the processing company whatchamacallem close, since they stay closed all weekend and, without a bus, we'd be forced to spend the whole time holed up in some pub, hiding from the cold and wet. Assuming that the bus is recovered, and it starts, the group will head over to Plymouth (On a personal note, I'm a little confused about Portsmouth and Plymouth and their differences. This is a known mental short-circuit of mine, I have a hard time differentiating cities in the same general area that start with the same letter-- remember the whole Philly/Pitt fiasco many years ago? Or maybe it's just places that start with a "P"...).
Meanwhile, I'll be leaving DC for London the next day (Friday), arriving at Heathrow on Saturday morning (by way of Paris), where I will spend a few short hours with A (who happens, serendipitously, to be working in the London this week) before I make my way to Portsmouth (or is it Plymouth) to meet everyone else. Or I might stay in London for the night, and catch up with my old buddy, "El Freddy".
Either way, we'll be on the ferry to St. Malo on Sunday night, arriving in France on Monday morning. There's a whole bit planned where we're picking up some bikes that are going to school kids in Senegal from a charity in western France, but more on that later. I imagine there'll be pictures, too, at some point.
On Tuesday, we head down through Bordeaux, towards San Sebastian and Bilbao, where good food and that wacky museum build by Gehry await.
Later in the week, we pick up Jenna, Amanda, and anyone else who's coming along in Madrid and Seville. Not sure how that's going to work out. I guess that's part of the adventure, though, no?