A FREE registration to www.streetjelly.com will give you access to a great show this afternoon!

Forum user JosieC will be broadcasting LIVE with her sister for a "Josie & Megz Cooper Folk Troubadours" performance this afternoon at 3pm.

It's an extra-special performance taking place at fellow Forum User Don Gaynor's Nursing Home in Oklahoma!

If you can, make some time to check it out!

Wow, Callie and Cat! What a wonderful thing to do! Thank you so much!

Josie and Megz had a false start yesterday out of Johannesburg but made the lost time up so the performance is on schedule for 3 PM Central Daylight Time today.

The live webcast is at www.streetjelly.com and if you register (free) you will be able to make requests and chat with Josie and Megan (Megz).

The bent Irishman is me wee self. Please say "Hey!"

Josie is giving away free albums to patients and online viewers - don't miss this wonderful opportunity.

Note that it is at 3pm CENTRAL time. 4pm here in the eastern time zone.

Eddie,

Thanks for coming today. I think there were about 80 total between live and Street Jelly. The ladies are both beautiful by any measure.

One happy Irishman in Oklahoma.

We moved outside to the gazebo where Josie continued to mesmerize me with her beautiful voice for nearly another hour. It was a fabulous evening perfectly punctuated by two beautiful friends.

Phew! Well that was quite a thing let me tell you!

We arrived at OR Tambo international airport with plenty of time and were sitting on the plane at exactly due departure time (9:30 Sunday night SA Time) when the plane shuddered about 1/2 a meter back and Megz said "amazing, dead on time". Famous last words. The captain came over the loud speaker and said there was a problem with the toilets on the left-hand side of the plane and that they would try and fix them. They left us sitting on the plane for five hours then eventually cancelled the flight, ushered us all to a hotel and told us to be back at 7:00 Tuesday next morning. So, now my plans for meeting up with Donald in Okmulgee at 3:00pm on Tuesday were completely scuppered because we were to fly to Dallas on the Monday morning and take a leisurely drive to Okmulgee on the Tuesday and arrive calm and composed, meet everybody, setup and do a performance on Streetjelly etc.

So flights, car hire and hotel bookings were completely messed up.

After four hours sleep, we were back at the airport to be delayed a further 3 ½ hours. We arrived at JFK at 8:30 at night after a 15 hour flight. The American ladies and gents, working at the SAA counter could not have been nicer to the many, many exhausted travellers. The organized us a luxury hotel and booked us on the 6:30 flight to Dallas. We did some quick calculations and optimistically worked out that we could still make the 3:00 appointment.

We had brought our own GPS with us but need to download the US maps, so we didn’t manage much sleep in our luxury hotel. We managed to set off from Dallas at about 11:00 but soon discovered that our GPS was not talking to us and the confusing display saw us taking every off-ramp off route 121 and then the GPS getting us BACK on to route 121. This happened about 10 times before we worked it out. So time was tight.

Having conquered driving on the wrong side of the road, we roared into Rebold Manor at 2:55, where about 40 residents were seated in the lobby waiting expectantly. Unshowered and smelly, we streamed a rather rushed and technically challenging Streetjelly to about 30 people online and about 30 people in the lobby with a guitar not proper tuned and a mind not completely calm. The three of us (me, Meg and Don) later continued outside in Don’s wonderful gazebo with the Oklahoma breeze blowing and the stress disappearing.

Thank you Don and Rebold Manor, for welcoming us to Okmulgee and thank you PG Musicers who tuned in. The PG Musicers I think I saw Jazzmandan, Eddie, Richard, Kevin Emmerich, RichMac, DannyC, Floyd. Who else did I miss? Please let me know.

I will be posting some video footage soon…

(I am sure there is a song in there somewhere)

Josie & Megz

Welcome to America. I did catch much of the show and really enjoyed it. I am sure this "US Tour" will bring many new experiences and shared memories you will both cherish.

Keep us up to date with the travels.

Dan

Will there be a rerun for those of us who were unable to tune in?

B&J, Megan (Megz) videoed the entire show as well as about 30 minutes in the gazebo. I will definitely share it.

Josie,

Thank you so very much for all you did.

Later,

I enjoyed listening to you very much. I wish it was possible to come to Tennessee and meet you in person but it's not going to happen.

And PS. When you are in the US, you were NOT driving on the wrong side of the road!

Josie tells me she has changed her flight plans, presumably to avoid the long drive back to Texas (on the wrong side of the road!)

I can't even imagine taking a long road trip in a country where all of my automatic responses to unexpected traffic conditions would potentially put me in the path of oncoming traffic! My hat is off to whoever is driving!

Anyway, They'll be departing from Charlotte Douglas international airport in Charlotte NC in case anybody in the neighborhood wants to see them off.

Pat,

That would be awesome!

I had hoped that these two wonderful ladies would have fond memories of their visit.

An illustration of the beauty inherent in these girls: They even managed to find joy in their chaotic delays and airport inconveniences.

They were totally spent on arrival but proceeded with the show for patients like the professional troupers they are.

Such wonderful (and beautiful) friends.

I love you, Josie and Megan! You certainly had my "happy tears" flowing freely and unabashedly.

Wow. What a couple of troupers!

Bless your hearts, I hope and pray the rest of your trip is nothing but wonderful, fun and stress free. So sorry, I wasn't able to catch the show. I am looking forward to the video. God speed.

Just a note to say that the StreetJelly event for which Josie came to the USA is being streamed all evening starting around 3 pm eastern time.

I don't know what time slot Josie will have, you'll just have to tune in and wait until she begins.

On a different note, I'm pleased to report that I was able to connect with Josie and Megan on Friday evening shortly after they arrived in Sevierville Tn. for their SJ thang.

We enjoyed a nice dinner together at a local restaurant, then they returned to their room to rest up from their hellaciously long day of driving.

Its should be no surprise to hear that they are lovely ladies and very easy to talk to! But if you ever have the opportunity to meet them... do NOT offer then wine from a Tennessee vineyard! That's all I'll say about that... except that the words "insect repellent" might come into play.

:-)

update: its 5 pm eastern time, and Josie just came on! Not sure how long she'll play... better tune in now!

Thanks for the plug Pat.

So the Streetjelly meetup is over and we really enjoyed meeting all the people face to face. They all made us feel very welcome. I saw Eddie and Danny out of the corner of my eye at the show and I know that Pat and Donald also tuned in.
It was great to hear Frankie's story. I think he is on the verge of something big because a whole lot of new successful, seasoned online performers have arrived on the site. I will post a separate thread about that.

Our trip from Oklahoma was not TOO bad but I must say that the Interstate is an experience! All those trucks are quite intimidating when you are not used to it. We had planned to get to Memphis from Okmulgee on Wednesday but after getting decidedly dizzy on the I40 we took a right turn and found the most beautiful camp spot at the Mississippi State Park. We shocked a few American campers when we changed into our swimming cozies and jumped in the dam. They said the waters were “alligator infested” but we said we face much more interesting challenges than that everyday just surviving in South Africa.

On the Thursday we decided to instruct our GPS to avoid the highways and made our way into Tennessee and after half a day’s driving we realized that we hadn’t actually made much progress at all. So we only made it to a camp site at Pickwick Dam, somewhere near Savannah, but would have liked to have travelled much further. We would also have liked to have a glass of red wine around our camp fire but soon discovered we were in a “dry county”. What a thing to have!

We arrived in Sevierville very late for our four o’clock rendezvous time with Pat. We had not realized that the time had now moved forward an hour. Pat treated us to a lovely dinner and we managed to have a nice glass of red wine at last. It was really nice to catch up.

Saturday we went to the Streetjelly meetup, which was just across the road from our motel. Today (Sunday) we are going to head off into the Great Smokey Mountains and do a bit of exploring and then probably fly out of Charlotte or Atlanta on Wednesday.

You've got more guts than I do for even doing this. I do not like to travel to begin with. I like the destinations a lot, just not the "getting there" part. And then add in that you drive on the left where you are from.... I was once in Florida and walking from a food place to my hotel, just across a highway, there was an intersection. It was very dark and very late at night and there was no traffic. A car approached that intersection and made a right turn. Obviously someone from a place where you drive on the left, because he made a wide right turn and headed in to the oncoming traffic on the wrong side of a USA road. I ran out into the road where I would be in his mirror and tried to get his attention, but as I said, it was dark and he did not see me. I called 911, but this was Florida and I really wasn't able to tell them much more than "by a Holiday Inn". Sadly that car went over a rise in the road and into oncoming traffic and many people died in the ensuing accident. So please do be careful as you adjust to driving on the right side rather than the left. The sightseeing you are about to do is some that I had hoped to do last year but financially something came up that forced me to cancel. And now with my dog being blind it is hard to travel that far with her.

So you are WELL ahead of anything I can do! You play better and sing better, and you are able to explore a foreign country! Great thing for you! It would have been great to drive down and meet you but the same conditions applied as last year, and now add in that dog issue.... I caught you online both times you were on and enjoy your talents very much. Glad you came over to do this and hope you enjoy the rest of your stay.

Hey Eddie. That really is a ghastly story about the guy driving on the wrong side of the road and definitely a sobering thought. Meg and I both take a few minutes each time we start up the car to gather our thoughts and we are constantly talking to each other on which way the traffic is coming from etc.

You really made my day with your other comments though. I do like to see new places and it certainly has been challenging. Not so much of a holiday as an adventure.

We still have a few days to explore the Smokey's. Looking forward to it.

Eddie,

This isn't the first adventure like this that Josie has undertaken... she did the same thing in Australia, and who knows where else!

And usually when she gets to wherever she's going... she gets into a boat and keeps on going! Yes, she also sails in regattas! <--(is that the correct plural for regatta?)

Gutsy ladies, both of them!

If you ever come to the USA for a sailing event, keep us posted... maybe next time you won't have to rent a car and drive yourself!

I understand in Australia they drive right down the middle.....

Last couple of days in the US unfortunately.

I would have liked to get to Memphis and Nashville but to stop off in the big cities would have taken up too much of our time. So I have to come back at some stage and go straight there and do the touristy thing.

We are flying out of Charlotte tomorrow and then out from New York on Thursday.

In going through the videos that Meg took I also see that Mario was there at the show at Rebold Manor. Thanks Mario!

Anybody else I missed?