I'm arriving at Gatwick on May 17th at 9:15 am. From there I'm traveling to St Ives by train. The railtrack website routed me to London Victoria, where I cross town to Paddington and then on to St Ives. I'd like to avoid London, and it seems like I should be able to go from Gatwick to Reading, and from there to St Ives. Could someone help me figure out how to do this?
Also, when I return from St Ives, I'll be going to London for a couple of days. How can I buy my tickets so I can maximize on return fares (rather than two one-way tickets)?

Try http://www.rail.co.uk/
for timetables and other information

Try entering two journeys, Gatwick-Reading and Reading-St Ives. I don't understand why the web site doesn't give this route as it must be the easiest way to do it, but it probably takes a bit longer than going via London. If you are buying some sort of APEX ticket, you will probably have to buy separate tickets. If you're paying a saver or supersaver fare, it would be cheapest to buy a return from London to St Ives, but to specify that you only want a seat reservation on the outward journey from Reading (though that's probably difficult on-line) - otherwise buy a return from Reading to St Ives, and a one-way ticket from Reading to London. You would have buy a separate one-way ticket for Gatwick to Reading.

Hi pakitty, just for the fun of it I did a search and this is what I found. The Saturday schedule showes From Gatwick the 11:03 Thames Trains to Reading, arriving at 12:17. Transfer to the 1:00 First Great Western train to St. Erth, arriving at 5:45. Then the Wessex Train at 5:53 to St. Ives at 6:05. Hope this helps.

Looks like Roger is quicker then I. Check www.thetrainline.com for these schedules. Good luck