Nah, sounds reasonable to me.

God, I hope Hubby doesn't watch any video from the fires. And doesn't read the stories. I don't need him having flashbacks about fighting fires and losing people in those very same mountains.

Man, I wish Megan was around. My bat just left the gare du nord and has discovered the siene. I feel so lost. I've never been to France and am navigating by maps and photos. I can't make it authentic in the way I want to.

Huh, I haven't been keeping up with Natter lately, but I just decided to pop in and see what was going on. Quelle coïncidence!

Feel free to ask or send anything for me to check. I'm a bit busy at work these days, but I can always justify working on Paris geography or other info. Plus, it still bugs me that The DaVinci Code got Paris geography wrong in the very first scene! So I'm happy to help.

Also, I could really use billytea's help. Hoping he drives by and sees my plea.

My bat travels from Southern California to Argentina, and then is forced out to sea by a cruel bat to drown. He lucks out by landing on the deck of a container ship, and is helped by a colony of rats. They stop in London, where Sam sees the Thames and thinks it might be the bridge in Texas where his cousins live. He meets Jilli, who takes him in, until a terrible attack by a cat takes him to the bat hospital on the Isle of Wight. Once he's better, he takes refuge in a barn, where he meets two horses, Noah and Grace. They invite him to take the ferry with them back to the mainland, where they are going back home in the countryside after a horse show.

They convince him to take the underground as the quickest way to Chelsea, but he ends up stowed away in a luggage cart on the Chunnel, and arrives in Paris.

In Paris he meets a bat who was struck deaf by roosting in a bell at Notre Dame on easter. The wise old bat convinces him to head back to the desert, and explains airplanes to him, and that one will take him back over the ocean. Of course, he ends up on Qantas, and lands in Sydney. He meets the flying foxes at the Sydney zoo, and is protected under their wings when they are packed up and taken to San Diego for a new bat exhibit.

There he's discovered by a zoo keeper who takes him out to the 5 freeway and releases him to find the desert. From there, he find peace as he travels the southwest, and that's when he finds the congress st bridge where his cousins roost, and home.

There. I feel better. But i could use a world map and some pins so I can really figure in the timeline correctly so I can work in a bit of astronomy.

Allyson, you probably have a ton of other resources, but if you want to know night sky in various locations (southern cross! milky way in the dark desert) I'd be happy to ask my dad. I mean, I "gave" him a bat from the Bat Sanctuary for Father's Day. Road Kill, precisely.

I look forward to giving my nephews this story. D's already fascinated by bats.

I am watching an abc program on hulu, and the graphic for my local abc station is in the corner. Is that normal?

Ooooh, Megan! You know what I could use? A couple of landmarks along the river. Sam and his friends (Peter, Sebastien, Pierre, and Giorgio, all named after physicists at the Observatoire de Paris). I have them searching under bridges for Sam's family, until they get to Notre Dame.

sarameg, that would be awesome. I e'd Phil Plait, but he's so crazy busy I might not hear back for weeks.

My cruise pictures: [link]

Are they starting at the Gare du Nord? Because, as the bat flies, you wouldn't really go along much river before coming to Notre Dame--it's almost directly due south and is pretty much the first thing you'd hit.

However, if a bat were, say, distracted by the Eiffel Tower, and first headed towards it, then when it hit the river decided to follow the river back to ND, you'd have more to work with.