More days have passed since my last confession...

Heyall,

It is difficult to get on the Internet everyday. So, I have a lot of catching up today. We had everything scheduled so that we would have time to get on the computer, blog, do homework, work on the nonprofit and more...however lack of computer access and such a packed schedule makes it difficult.

We were in Lincoln for 2 days, but it felt like a whirlwind. We stayed with Annie's grandma. They housed and fed us as well as sent food along with us for the ride. The Meadowlark Coffee House was a welcome environment and many people who have never heard me play came out for the show. Branson Perry's mother came from MO to profile her son along with Linda who is a warrior for many missing that she has never met. Nathan Anton's mother and father came to tell the story of his disappearance. Kelly Jolkowski from Project Jason came to profile her son, Jason and to meet with other families of the missing. Carolyn Pospisil came with her family to talk about Erin. Gary, Dana, Jeff and I all took one family to talk with and film the stories of the missing for FINDing Gina. It gave me a break from my usual frenzy and really created a way for them to truly be a part of the solution. The event went so well. The audience responded well and we not only distributed a lot of flyers and DVD's of the missing...but we sold a lot of merchandise.

Sioux Falls found us at Augustana College with some amazing students who slept in a van for a week to help us raise money to continue on our way. They said it was uncomfortable and cold, but it was a rewarding experince. We were able to profile 10 missing people matched up with 10 students from different areas of the country. Our sound was turned off in the house for most of the event, but I guess people could hear us anyway. We finally got it turned on by the last few songs. We don't know what the final count on the donations coming in are as the students are still waiting for funds to come in. We also had the opportunity to go to visit the town that gave us our start...Garretson. Last summer we were in Garretson, SD for Jesse James Days. The people there treated us like kings and queens and this visit was no exception. For a town of 1100 we certainly got a lot of heart, support attn and funds raised. Amazing. We are working on writing a song for them. We have a couple of versions, but are not sure which direction we will go in. Additionally, they fed us a wonderful BBQ dinner, raised more funds for us and the kids played a game of freeze tag. Cristi our videographer got involved in that game and somehow landed on her knee...which within a few hours was swollen up twice it's normal size. Pretty ugly...and we stayed up till one in the morning trying to figure out what to do about the situation. Fortunately, before we left Augie a student who had training in Sports Medicine came to our aid...gave Cristi advice and today...the swelling is down. It doesn't look pretty, Cristi is in pain and can't walk well...but she appears to be on the mend.

I got up at 545 due to Tammy's prompting for an Interview on channel 3 Mason City. Then, at 10 am I had a live hour interview with an npr station. The interview was an indepth interview about my work with the missing, my book, my life and what I have learned. A few questions caught me off guard as I was not used to being asked such indepth questions. The Interviewer Greg was amazing. I called him Gary when we started. I felt really unprofessional, but he handled it well. I knew his name was Greg, but I have met so many Gary's on the road...that I guess I had Gary on the brain. A few people emailed in with great questions. It was really a nice interview. We even talked about the trip we are planning to DC to speak with Senators about DNA issues.

We met up with Paul Davis and his twin daughters, Alexia and Kayla who were abducted when they were 2 years old. They are featured on the side of our bus as FOUND! We will be interviewing their family tonight about the abduction and the change in their lives since the girls were brought home.

The men are setting up for our show and Dana and I are doing computer work. Tammy is running around faxing our stage plot to Dallas for our Nov 4th finale event and getting hotel rooms booked. It looks like we will be in Chicago on Friday night with a congressman and the Chicago Sun Times. We continue to squeak in the best way possible.

We planned a quiet area with a sign and everything in the back of the bus that we have never used. First, Jeff used that as his recovery area. His lungs have been filled with fluid this whole time and now that we were able to get him a breathing aperatus he is doing a lot better. Cristi is now using that same area for her recovery and so Jeff is back in his bunk. Last night, Gary replaced the sign with SICK BAY.

Until I can get back on line...

Love,

Jannel