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What a lot we had to be thankful for this year! Last year had Michelle feeling weak and beaten from her recurrence of cancer, and Becky feeling weak and beaten from her cancer, and me feeling weak and beaten from having just lost Michael. But this year, Michelle was strong, working non-stop on preparations for the feasting. Becky is exuberant, as she has been told that her tumor is gone.
I was feeling a little maudlin about being not only without Michael, but without Jack. And then we were talking on the phone and he said that he wished that he could meet all the family -- people I've talked about often. And we decided that he would come down, and so he did.
Wednesday night, Angie made the best lasagna ever, seriously -- homemade sauce.. just plain yummy.
Thanksgiving day was the feast with turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberries, green beans, and then desserts. Pies this year were my cherry pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and a bought caramel apple pie.
Friday Jack was still with me, and we went to the Frazier Museum, seeing lots of weapons, armor, guns, spears, and other interesting things. Then we went to KT's and had a delicious dinner, went to Graeter's for ice cream, and returned to the house at about 9. Another great day!
Jack was with me on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Then, this morning, we shared breakfast before he went north and I went south and west. And now we're 850 miles apart.
Tonight I'm in West Memphis, Arkansas. The Where is Janee Now link over there --> shows me in my actual campground, near to the actual space where I'm camped! The APRS is working very well, and I'm getting lots of position reports throughout the day. I wonder if this will continue as I head on westward. Here's a screenshot of the Where is Janee Now in Satellite view. You can see a barge in this picture, and this is like the 2 barges that I saw going by here earlier, when I was doing my walk. Click it to see it full-size!
What is she saying? I thought that Janee was going to be traveling across the country on Thanksgiving! :)
Well, here's what happened. I awoke on Sunday in Effingham, IL, and got onto I-57 south. Then I got a phone call from Angie and George (Michael's brother). They were both on the phone and they strongly urged me to turn left onto I-64 East, when I got there, which, as they could see by my APRS, was going to be very soon!
So that's what I did, and I'm going to spend Thanksgiving here in Louisville with them and Michael's whole end of the family. I'll be making a cherry pie tomorrow, and helping to greet all of the guests as they begin arriving from around the country today.
I've been staying for the last two nights in their guestroom, but I'll be staying in the RV from now on, because the house is already "booked" with visitors! :)
Weather has been mostly fine. I did my walk in Cherokee Park, and did not get lost, on Sunday. Ydy I went to the St. Matthews Mall with Becky and I did my walk there, because it was raining. Today's supposed to be 50 ° and the sun's shining brightly, so I'll likely walk outdoors again.
The APRS, to which Ray referred in his comment on my last post, and to which I referred at the beginning of this post, is the system that I use to fuel the "Where is Janee Now?" link, over to the right. It stands for Automatic Packet Reporting System, and is an amateur-radio-GPS-based system for showing the world my location.
In short, I have installed in my RV an antenna, which connects to a power booster. This connects to my amateur radio (2 meter), which is attached to a small Garmin GPS unit -- not my new one. This one is decicated to APRS. The position on my GPS is fed into my radio, and the position is reported to the amateur radio community. The magic comes in, when a station acting as an Internet Gateway receives my signal. This signal is then reported to the internet, and you can go to that site in my link and see where I was and what I was doing (sort of -- if I'm driving, you see how fast I'm going) at the time that the signal was reported.
Be sure to click the Satellite View button in the upper left corner of the map! And then zoom in! Right now, I'm shown close to arrival again at George and Angie's house. That's because Becky and I were out doing errands ydy in the RV.
I'm having a great time, and I hope that all of you have a very happy Thanksgiving!
