Transit to Scotland

We were up at 6 and on the street boxes in hand at 6:30.  We traveled as a train, me pushing one bag and holding one end of the cardboard box, Jim holding the other end and dragging his bike and second bag behind him.  Stairs were a challenge and we pissed off more than a few Parisians.
We took the metro down to Chatelet and switched to the RER up to the airport.  We arrived without much issue, though we did initially get off at the wrong airport stop and had to wait for a second train.  Once in we mostly breezed through the baggage experience, though we had to sweet talk Jim’s bike onto the plane.  We transited quickly through Heathrow and arrived in Glasgow on time.  As we walked to the baggage claim we passed through a duty free liquor store (yes, welcome to Scotland) and were handed a sample of 12 year old Balvenie to ease the pain of the baggage experience.  Little did we know we would need it.  Our checke bags came through quickly but we stood around waiting for our bikes.  As we stood we were approached by another gangly looking American with full sideburns who asked if we were heading to the race and introduced himself as Carl (Decker).  His bags were also not appearing and we all headed into the claims area together to figure out what was up.  Our bikes had missed the connection and were meant to be arriving on the next flight.  Carl’s were there but on another belt.  He was picking up a van to drive up to Aviemore but was waiting for Adam Craig, Kelli Emmet, and Elke Brutsaert who were arriving on another flight.  He said they could wait for our bikes and take us all up to Aviemore together.  We waited around while he got the van and met Adam et al, when their flight came in.  These guys know how to travel and the offloaded 6 bikes to get them through single speed worlds this weekend and then the real worlds next week.
Our bikes miraculously appeared on the next flight and we headed out to the van for the ride up.  And now I sit here writing this post from within the darkness of the windowless cargo area of a large panel van.  Jimbo, Elke and I are lounging across the piled luggage trying to keep from getting sick as the pastoral Scottish countryside streams by us outside.