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.

Shoot me questions, locations and times (summer, fall, winter, etc) and I'll mine dad's brain. I can nag him mercilessly.

But i could use a world map and some pins

If you can find airports close to the places you have in mind [link] then this Great Circle Mapper site might help with the visualization.

Aw, perkins, it's always so neat seeing my hometown as a tourist. Reminds me that it really can be a pretty town with some fairly nifty history.

Although funny thing-- perspective-- this picture?

[link]

That building that's almost dead center, with the red and white antenna? When we moved to Miami from New York in 1968 and for probably close to ten years afterwards, that building was the tallest building in the Miami skyline. Along with the Freedom Tower.

Your cruise pics are GORGEOUS. Love the Caribbean waters.