We made it, the bus is here, and only one person perished (but not a team member).

Happy to say, Kara, Scott, Mike and Eddy made it to London and picked up the bus. She's purring like a kitten and safely stowed at the Southampton airport until Sunday.

The day started out a in a surreal fashion. Scott and Kara made it into London (after alomst missing their flight from Cincinnati to London..Cincinnati? It's a long story..) and took a train from Gatwick to Southampton to meet Mike and Eddy at the docks. Our train, as it was pulling into Southampton station, stopped abruptly. After a pregnant pause, a distinctly English voice came over the intercom and said "We need guards to platform 5 quickly!". The train was shut down and all passengers aboard sort of stood around and waited to be let out of the doors - we had been on the train for two hours and the platform was RIGHT THERE! Police came through and informed us that someone had jumped in front of the train and was "badly injured". After some gasps and more waiting they let us off the train, being sure to route us well wide of the front of the train, and we assume, a grisly scene.

It turns out "Suicide Friday" is a regular feature of Southampton life and being Friday, well....there you go! Once off the train, Kara and I realized that while we were here, Eddy and Mike were somewhere behind us on train from Heathrow and all traffic was stopped. It as 1pm and we had to get the bus by 5pm, or we'd have to wait until Monday, throwing our whole schedule off. A grand start! Well, tragically ,it turned out that the prospective suicide candidate succeeded in his/her attempt, so the clean up was a bit quicker. Trains started rolling again, and Mike and Eddy showed up at 2pm. A quick trip to the docks, and low and behold, there was Thomas waiting to be picked up like a puppy at the pound. Some paperwork, and we were off. We decided to park him at a secure lot at the airport, since we wanted to hit London for a few days. Driving to the airport was our first experience of the "gawking factor" - everyone just stared, chuckled, and even gave us a few thumbs up as we navigated the A731.

So we are in London now, safe and sound, and will be meeting Jay tomorrow. Sunday morning we head back to Southampton and pick up the bus so we can make an 8pm ferry to St Malo, France. Never a dull moment with this crew!