Updates will now be posted with the newest at the top, though itinerary-detail-related updates will be found at my itinerary page.

Airfare Bought!

This is actually really happening. See the proof here.

Travel Date Chosen

I will be flying from home on Thursday, July 20, (most likely arriving the next day) and leaving the UK on Monday, August 7. Exact times to be announced once airfare is bought. Going by what various airfare comparison sites say at this point, though, I'd be in London around lunchtime. While I'm fully aware that there are lots of airports in the UK I could theoretically fly to/from, the nearest airport to me only offers flights to Heathrow and Gatwick. While the cheapest airfare I've found with an airline that actually has a luggage allowance and isn't just for those under 26 years old is less than the airfare from the nearest airport (well, second nearest--the nearest is a couple miles that-a-way, and costs about quadruple), the cost difference is less than the cost to get to the airport twice. So no flying in and out of Aberdeen for me!

I don't have a set itinerary yet, so the map referenced below is still open! I'm definitely going to be in London, Manchester, and near Edinburgh. Most likely, I'll be in Cambridge, though I really hope 2legs' doctors get their heads out of their collective ar*es and communicate so he can function again! Since it's just me traveling, my main goal is to visit h2g2 folks.

UPDATE! MAJOR CHANGES!

I'm still coming, but Tom won't be. Not for any bad reason! We simply are starting to make some long-term plans that the funds represented by an extra air fare and such will help quite a bit with¹. I will still quite likely be over there for 2 weeks, but I might come a little earlier in the summer. This change simplifies things immensely. Not only in the obvious financial ways, but if I'm the only one traveling, then we don't have to figure out who will be watching PaperKid and Notepad for us while we are away!

Tom and I are still going to do something for our anniversary, even if it's "just" heading to wherever my flight is going to originate from a day or so early and spending time alone together before I leave. Much simpler to find someone to watch the girls for a few days than for 2 weeks-and-a-bit! It'll be easier to make plans, too, with only one set of tastes to work with...

Original Plans

My husband, Tom, and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary on July 12, 2017². We are planning on finally making it to the UK, mostly because I've been wanting to meet my friends over there for almost as long as I've been on h2g2, and Tom, at this point³, just says he wants to see some castles. We're starting to actually set aside funds, instead of just saying we should, and I've started an account with a well-known crowdfunding site.

Phase 1: Mapping fun!

Even though the trip is over a year away, we⁴ are starting to think of just what we want to do and where we want to go. We have decided that we're not hiring a car, so we will be dependent upon public transport⁵. As a major part of this phase of planning, I've set up a map here so that people can suggest various places to visit, and to show me just where my UK friends are--or at least the nearest train station, so that no one has to show the world where their home is. If anyone does put a marker to show where they are, I just ask that h2g2 names be used, even if we're friends elsewhere and I know your real name, because I can't always remember who is who...

Placing a pin in the map is fairly straightforward, but just in case your caffeine levels are too low, or other levels are too high... Open the map, click on Additions, and then click on Add Marker. Do that before clicking on where you want to place the pin--you will have the option to either place to marker by clicking a spot on the map, or you can enter the address (if you know it). The Detailed version of Add Marker also allows you to enter the exact latitude and longitude. If you make a mistake, either using your real name instead of your h2g2 name or placing the marker in the wrong place, I'm the only person that has editing privileges. Just place a new marker, and let me know to delete the old--might be simplest in that case to just choose a different color marker for the new one, and tell me which color to take care of.

Isn't this a bit early?

It could seem that planning a trip that will be, at the earliest, taken in midJuly 2017 in early June 2016 is a bit much--especially since we don't know how long we're going to be! But making the map will actually help us to decide how long to spend--we both work for schools, so the summer is open. The sooner we narrow down destinations and dates, the sooner meet(s) can be planned⁶!

Phase 2: Tentative plans

Right now⁷, we're leaning towards two weeks after our county fair, which is the first weekend in August, which would make it August 7ish-21ish. If PaperKid does end up showing an animal at the fair, shift that later a day or two--we're 6+ hours from the nearest airport! Well, technically, there is an airport here in town, but, as of now, that has 1 or maybe 2 flights a day down to a major airport, and would add hundreds to the fare. Much cheaper to fly out of the major airport directly--even with getting ourselves down there.Most likely, we will take Greyhound--probably pay a friend's gas to drop us off at the station and pick us up when we get back (the nearest Greyhound station is about an hour and a half away). We were thinking of renting a car to get to the airport, and another to get home, but then I checked prices...

I took a break from planning this trip to plan and take a family trip to Yellowstone this summer, so not a whole lot of decisions have been made. In fact, we're still at the point we were shortly after putting the link to the map up in The Post, so feel free to add pins still. I'll make time to go over the map we have so far with Tom when he's free as well...