The Team gathers no moss, that's for sure.  The planning committee has barely been in session for a half hour when there's a gentle rap on the door.  It's cracked slightly open, just enough for a question to slip in: How's it going in there?  Is there anything to talk about yet?

Well, yes there is.  Planning is an iterative process, one that works best by putting up a candidate to be batted around, looking for points of consensus and ideas for improvement.  The first cut quickly brings consensus, easily establishing a frame for more specific ideas to hang from.  Here's the argument behind our formative idea: 

• If the first knee operation is 9-10 months out, that puts it maybe around next March or April.  And if the second one is four months later, we're looking at July or August.  And if a few months of therapy and rehab are needed beyond that, TA is looking at a 2026 that isn't shot exactly, but one where we'll be spending a lot of time in or around Portland.
• We aren't really keen on spending so much time here, but it can't be helped.  At some point, those knees need replacement.  But we really don't like the idea of hanging around here for two years in a row.
• If I have to live with knee pain for basically another year, we might as well deal with it wherever we want.  It won't be any less of a limitation in America than other places we'd like to be.
• All things considered, we'd rather be in Europe than America.
• Therefore, we're going back to Europe.  Soon.
• QED (Quite Easily Done, for those who've forgotten their Latin).

Several iterations later, we've got consensus on a plan we're both genuinely excited about.  It's probably the easiest significant planning exercise we've ever completed.  Here's a snapshot:

• August: We'll fly back to London and pick up with essentially the plan we dropped when we flew home: a five week loop beginning and ending in London that takes in the Cotswolds, Somerset, Exmoor, Dartmoor, and the Jurassic Coast.

• September/October: We'll fly from London to Venice (the Marco Polo airport), and fashion some sort of loop through northeast Italy and the Dolomites.  We don't have any fixed idea on what we'll do here other than to head up toward Trento, Bolzano and around and hang out as long as feels right.  There are so many places in northeast Italy we'd be happy to see or revisit, but we'll probably just have a framework in mind and figure it out as we go.

• October/November: At some point we'll lose the weather and want to be further south where it's warmer and drier.  We have a plan for that: we'll fly to Valencia.  There are plenty of ways to fill our days down there.  It won't be a surprise if Mallorca figures into the plan somehow.

• December: fly back to Portland, touch base with the medical team, and so on.

• January & February: Tucson

• March/April: first surgery? 

So how serious are we about this plan, and how committed do we feel?  Pretty serious.  We bought our flight to London this morning (a real bargain: $428/person for a nonstop flight, the return trip of the one we just flew home on.  And we've finalized the itinerary and made all of our bookings other than in London itself.  I need to start shopping around for an airport hotel that will store our suitcases for five weeks.  We leave for London on August 3rd, and tentatively will move on to Venice on September 8th.

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Eva WaltersYou might see if the Holiday Inn Express at Heathrow would store your suitcases. They are located a short walk from the terminal, so no shuttle is required. Maya stayed there last fall and said it was very nice and quiet and not too expensive. Apparently the breakfast is good too.
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6 days ago

Scott AndersonTo Eva WaltersThanks, Eva. I did look at that as a place to check, but since then we found something that looks good to us: the Swans Hotel in Stains, about 6 miles away. It's a mix of hotel and pub right on the river and looks very nice. I think we're set.
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6 days ago

Eva WaltersSounds good.
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6 days ago

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We don't have anything like such a detailed plan for Northern Italy, but at that time of year we don't think we'll need to book anything in advance other than a hotel near Venice.  We'll just fly in and figure it out as we go.  Just for grins though, here's an example of what could happen if we're lucky with the weather and get a long Autumn:

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Ben ParkeThat would be a spectacular itinerary.
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6 days ago

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And southern Spain?  That one can really wait.  Well come up with something once we realize it's time to head south for the winter.

Anything else?  Just one thing, and this is really key.  My chances of getting a respectable bird count for the year just went up significantly.