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Hey, Yo'ins,

I started out with Yo'ins as we drove through Pennsylvania today. Beautiful Pennsylvania I might add. We flyered quite a few spots in Pennsylvania this morning as we made our way to Maryland. The first 5 stops actually said no, but we perserved and we were on a streak of people that really cared about missing people. We also met a couple of sisters on their way to Florida who took a whole stack and offered to make copies along the way so they could post missing people from Oregon, California, Iowa, Indiana and more...we are picking up Gina volunteers everywhere we go. It's amazing.

Oh and by the way, our bus attracts a lot of attention...which was the point of raising money to make this happen. The more attention we attract to our cause...the more chances of bringing one home. Each new stop brings tears to the families members of the missings eyes when they see the bus that represents the Squeaky Wheel Tour. Patti Bishop was so moved it took her a few moments to compose herself so she could take a picture of the bus. I still tear up when I see the bus. This whole trip has been surreal. I am trying to be in the moment as much as I can to drink it all in...but with so much going on I am glad there are 9 of us to capture all the bits and pieces.

This is yesterdays blog from Ohio. Oct 28, 2007: I had an inspiration today as the band was talking. It is about building a data base with enough artists to profile all 100,000 active missing people’s cases in this country during the Squeaky Wheel Tour. Now, I don’t really want to make more work for myself and I don’t really want to actively pursue this at this time. However, the reality of bringing this to pass does bring tears to my eyes as I contemplate the enormity of that kind of effort and the impact it would have on 100,000 missing people’s families…it seems like a very worthwhile goal. I know there are enough Indie artists out there make it possible. I can’t believe it took me so long to come up with that idea.

The idea all started this morning when we were at a “Flying J” in Ohio placing missing person’s flyers and asking travelers to take them. Prior to flyering, I went to the back of the bus to grab a stack of flyers and had very a difficult time not taking every single one with me. How do I choose? Who am I to choose which flyers go out at any given truck stop? I felt overwhelmed by the enormity of the missing we had in our care coupled with the knowledge that they all needed and deserved that chance to be brought home. Tears welled up in my eyes with nearly each person I asked to take a flyer. As I told the story of my sister it felt like I was not reciting this story by rote but that it was the first time I was telling it….as if it just happened. That is the thing with living in this world of the missing. I try to focus on what is found in my life and keep that at the forefront of my mind…however, there are times when the walls I put up to protect me break through and I have my moments where it feels like Gina just disappeared. I never know what it is that will break down my focus of found and the walls I have built up to protect me in order to daily deal with the sadness that surrounds this work. Today the tears simply came from knowing that each one of those precious missing deserve to be found, to be recognized and brought home…to their waiting families.

Thus, the today’s tears breaking through created an idea that every missing person in the US will be profiled by at least once artists during the 19 day Squeaky Wheel Tour period. Don’t know if we can achieve it by 2008...but having the goal and focus in my mind and putting it out there…makes it SO!

All is well on Clementine Street!


Jannel