Journal
Welcome to the Faith and Good Courage Journal
“Roadside Notes”
The Faith and Good Courage Journal also known as Roadside Notes shares reflections and real stories from Route 66 and beyond, now also brought to life (Audio and Video) through Roadside Notes Podcast and the Roadside Notes Vodcast.
Roadside Notes from The Route 66 Chaplain
These are reflections from the road — moments of grit, grace, and stillness captured in coffee cups, quiet skies, and motel rooms.
- Click any title below to read the full Faith and Good Courage Journal story.
- Listen to the narrated version on the Roadside Notes on Apple Podcasts (or anywhere you download your favorite podcast).
- Want to drive Route 66 and listen? Click HERE to watch the YouTube version of Roadside Notes.
About the Faith and Good Courage Journal
Welcome to the Faith and Good Courage Journal, where stories from the road meet the quiet strength of spiritual reflection. Not just a blog, but a resting place for real stories, roadside grace, and moments of unexpected hope.
For readers who love to listen, the Roadside Notes Podcast offers narrated readings of these Journal entries — paired with real Route 66 footage from Western Arizona, including Topock, Oatman, Sitgreaves Pass, and Kingman. Each episode blends storytelling, faith, and the rhythm of the open road.
This isn’t a travel blog. It’s a collection of moments. Quiet, sacred, sometimes strange, from a chaplain with a suitcase and a second-hand sense of direction. Some stories were scribbled in dusty notebooks, others came to me somewhere between the gas station coffee and the grace I didn’t expect.
I call it my journal. You can call it what you need. Either way, thank you for spending time with the Faith and Good Courage Journal and the Roadside Notes Podcast.
Roadside Notes
The Long Way Home
The Long Way Home is not a detour. It’s a decision. A quiet brave one that says I know where I’m going and I’m going to get there in the way that serves me best even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone watching from the outside. Vodcast | Podcast
The Tip Nobody Left
The Tip Nobody Left is still sitting on tables all over this country right now. At every diner, every truck stop, every roadside counter where somebody just spent an hour taking care of a stranger without being asked to do it beautifully, just being asked to do it. Vodcast | Podcast
More Than A Thursday
More Than a Thursday is not a reinvention. It’s just the rest of the conversation. Same voice. Same diner. Just more room at the table. You’ve always had a seat here. Now you’ve got a few more to choose from. Vodcast | Podcast
The Loop Ends
The Loop Ends When You Do. I didn’t come up with that. I heard it years ago from someone who said it the way people say things when they’ve lived it rather than read it. Vodcast | Podcast
The Man Who Collected Happy
He traveled for work but somewhere along the way he had made a decision that a few extra days and a road worth taking was worth the longer itinerary. Vodcast | Podcast
The Empty Stool
The Empty Stool was never really empty. It was waiting for someone who needed it and on that day it found him. You don’t always know when you’re sitting next to someone at a turning point in their story. Vodcast | Podcast
Mile Zero
I met a woman at a gas station outside of Kingman who was taking her time leaving it. She figured the road would sort out the specifics once she got moving. She was right. Vodcast | Podcast
The Regular
The Regular doesn’t always have a name on the sign out front. But everybody inside knows who he is. He’s the one who comes in at the same time, sits in the same spot, orders the same thing, and tips the same way every single time. Vodcast | Podcast
The Man Who Was The Building
The Man Who Was the Building didn’t introduce himself. He didn’t need to. You understood who he was the moment you walked through the door at Hackberry General Store. Vodcast | Podcast
The Boy Who Wanted to Watch
The Boy Who Wanted to Watch wasn’t causing trouble. He just wanted to see everything. The lifts going up. The air guns spinning lug nuts off like they weighed nothing. The machines that balanced the tires. Vodcast | Podcast
The Centennial Seeker
The Centennial Seeker found me before I found him. I was halfway through breakfast at a Route 66 diner when I heard him ask the waitress a question about the towns. The ones that should have been gone by now. Vodcast | Podcast
If It’s Your Calling
If It’s Your Calling, It Will Keep Calling. You’ve probably seen that on a coffee mug or a piece of wall art somewhere between the kitchen and the front door. Maybe you smiled at it. Maybe you walked right past it. Vodcast | Podcast
The Detour Called Self-Doubt
The Detour Called Self-Doubt is not a sign that you’re in the wrong lane. It’s a sign that what’s ahead of you actually matters. The people who never doubt themselves are usually the ones who never risk anything worth having. Vodcast | Podcast
Someday Finally Showed Up
No phones on the table. No awkward silences to fill. Just two people who had long since run out of things to prove and were simply enjoying where they were. Route 66 had been on their list since before they were married. Vodcast | Podcast
She Drove It Anyway
She Drove It Anyway is not a story about a woman in crisis. It’s a story about a woman who knew what she needed and had the courage to go get it. The road doesn’t belong to any one kind of traveler. It never did. Vodcast | Podcast
The Note You Leave Behind
The Note You Leave Behind is never really about the words on the paper. It’s about the decision to notice someone when it would have been easier to look away. Vodcast | Podcast
What The Road Taught Me
What the Road Taught Me didn’t come from a book or a classroom or a motivational weekend. It came from a diner stool, a long stretch of highway, and enough miles to finally stop arguing with the quiet. Vodcast | Podcast
The Man Who Drove Every Road
The Man Who Drove Every Road is not a story about a remarkable morning. It’s a story about an ordinary one that turned into something worth carrying. He didn’t need answers from me. He just needed to see that the warmth was still out there. Vodcast | Podcast
Kindness Costs Nothing
It wasn’t a remarkable morning. Coffee. A window seat. The kind of quiet that settles in before the day gets loud. I wasn’t looking for anything. I was just there. Vodcast | Podcast
Grace Takes The Detour
The detour on I-40 just out of Kingman. I wanted the Straight shot. Efficient. The kind of drive that gets you somewhere without asking much of you along the way. But I missed the ramp. No signal, no GPS worth trusting, just heat waves and a frontage road. Vodcast | Podcast
Kindness Is Not Always Reactive
I didn’t fully understand that until a pie sign in a diner case made it plain. It wasn’t a remarkable day. Just the road and a reason to stop. I pulled in the way I’ve pulled into a hundred diners along this route. Vodcast | Podcast