Hello!

Against my better judgment, based on what all the business research says about sending emails of any importance at the end of the week, I'm going to write this from the heart and press "send" as soon as I'm done.

It's Friday.

Your work week has been crazy.

You're looking forward to the weekend.

There's some kind of drama around you with friends. Or family.

The last thing you're thinking about is scrolling through this email.

But I hope you will.

And I hope that you'll share it.

Because this is the start of "something good."

You're on the ground floor. An insider. You get all the sneak peeks.

This is what you get for subscribing to our newsletter. It's not glorious. Unless you see in us the potential we see in others.

There aren't many of you remaining. Although we began our travel adventure in March 2018, completing our very naive journey to the top of the world in Deadhorse, Alaska... so much of what we thought our story would be (arriving in Ushuaia, Argentina, some 2-3 years later... aka 2021) has changed. We've gained and lost followers/subscribers depending on the season of our story.

But the way I see it, our story - and all of our perceived failures (didn't make it past Mexico, devastated by RV failures and breakdowns, scraping by odd-job to odd-job, etc) - were preparing us for what is ahead in a few short days.

As I type that, I realize that the biggest failure on the road was when I confessed to Lindsay that my alcohol dependence was interfering with my ability to be her husband, business partner and travel buddy and that dealing with it would cost her the opportunity to pursue her "Fishing All 50" adventure to honor her late father. What she wanted more than anything was to catch a marlin and to scatter his ashes in the sea.

Instead of taking her father's remains fishing with her in each of the 50 states over the last few years, we carried on more or less with the same uncertainty we had before she revealed that desire to me. We spent winters leading caravans in Baja and summers working in South Dakota.

Lindsay expressed a lot of grace toward me, both in accepting my confession to her and in putting on the altar her desire to go on one last big adventure on the road with her father.

She didn't leave me. She didn't build a wall between us. She didn't lose trust in me. Or faith that God would redeem our time and all of the opportunities we might not have been able to pursue.

If you've followed us for a while, you know that what happened after God freed me from my alcohol dependence (April 30, 2024) is as much a miracle as the deliverance itself.

• We purchased an RV caravan company operating tours in Baja (a purpose, and a real source of livlihood for us)
• We bought a new truck and fifth-wheel trailer that are less prone to failure than our previous RVs (no more constant anxieties over the next breakdown)
• We made ends meet month after month, year after year, working in South Dakota. (we always had everything we needed and plenty of what we wanted)
• We grew the caravan business, and continue to grow it (it is the only reason we can afford to take the journey ahead that I'll describe).

I take no credit for our success. It is not luck or fortune. I don't believe in karma or in the universe "conspiring" to make things happen.

It was only when I faced losing it all that God was able to redeem all the "what ifs" I had lost. He turned what I considered one failure after another into something worth so much more... SO much more...

I say this to publicly thank God. I'm not ashamed to profess such a miracle.

But I also say this as an encouragement to you, if you are on the brink of collapse in any way in your life. Whatever it is you've lost, or are afraid of losing, pales in comparison to the story God wants to write with your life... I know, I heard people tell me this too, before I fell on my face in tears nearly 2 years ago.

But it's true. If you let it be.

Fast forward to today.

I'm sitting in the waiting room of a Ford Dealership in Yuma, Arizona, getting our routine maintenance completed. We've been in Yuma since March 28th, when we led our final Baja caravan group of the season across the border.

We rested and recovered from a busy winter season for the first few days (we led 3 tours for 99 out of 120 days with 14-17 guests relying on us 24/7). Then we made a list of everything we needed to do for the caravan business before we switched gears.

One of the beautiful things about owning a caravan business is that it is seasonal. Our tours operate from November to early April. We're in Baja then, either leading tours or remaining on-call if we're needed by any of our tour leaders.

But between April to November... well... that's "our time."

If you happened to read the last newsletter, you know that our next adventure was born sometime in the past 2 years, as Lindsay and I spent hours upon hours driving, talking, and trying to figure out how we could get out of the "RV lifestyle" niche of content creation and back into storytelling.

I'm a storyteller.

If you've made it this far, you know.

But in all of the years when we were living out a beautiful story, we had to do what other "influencers" do to make ends meet - we made boring, "how-to" and sometimes clickbait videos, either contracted through brands paying us directly or in hopes that the "algorithms" would bless us.

It was terrible work. I will say, I've done worse.

But the idea of "working for ourselves" was not really working. We were working for brands. Or for YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, in trying to trigger the algorithms.

We looked at our video data... only a few of our "story" videos performed decently. Those were the ones with clickbait titles or photos. (You know the kind I'm talking about). Most of our success came from these how-to videos that we really weren't qualified to make public (I honestly don't trust YouTube creators unless they are proven experts in the industry I'm searching for).

NONE of the videos paid more than a few tanks of gas, if that, let alone the glamorous lifestyle that many people think happens when you're an online "influencer"/"content creator."

I hate both of those titles.

I'm neither.

I'm just a guy living the best life I can in pursuit of the Abundant Life that Jesus promised those who looked to Him.

But what has happened over the past 2 years has led Lindsay and me to the point where we can cast aside any thought, desire or planning that we will be successful content creators because we're ready to transcend the title and return to a state of storytelling.

If you joined this newsletter thinking we'd offer tips for remodeling your RV, sorry. Or if you think we're going to share tips and tricks for living a nomadic lifestyle for less than X amount, nope.

But if you're seeking "something good" in your life, or want to be able to sit down and watch a video that tells a good story while introducing you to real people in real places living real lives the best that they can...

Well, that is the focus of our next journey.

On Sunday, against our better judgment, we are leaving Yuma to wander to Los Angeles. Every time I have ever traveled to Los Angeles (a dozen times, back in the filmmaking days), it has rained. Rain is not usually common in LA. But it's going to rain in LA on Sunday. So at least that will feel normal.

What won't feel normal is the fact that we are launching Someone Tell Chris (Something Good) with a 2,500-mile drive from Santa Monica to Chicago along Route 66.

The driving will feel normal. We're great at that after 8 years of wandering and some hundreds of thousands of miles of North American highways later.

But my role in this journey has me feeling completely ill-equipped, under-prepared and entirely uncomfortable. That is because I will have to approach strangers everywhere we travel and ask them to tell me "something good" in their lives.

From there, well, that's where the storytelling will happen, God-willing.

I have a t-shirt that says "Tell me something good!" and a bald head that reflects sunlight like a mirror. It will be hard to miss me hanging out on the streets of Anywhere, America.

In the past, I've tested multiple times to be extroverted. But over the last 6 or 7 years, I feel I have become introverted.

I've also become bitter.

I've become resentful.

I've become greedy.

I've become unwilling to sacrifice my comfort for someone else.

And so forth.

All this, while I shared that God has redeemed me from what could have been devastation. It's why you should never judge a Christian by their cover. We're not perfect. That's the point.

The point is that we are called to love others the way that God has loved us.

Have I shared yet, or emphasized, how undeserving I have felt of any redemption God has granted me in my life? Just being alive (and not having accidentally injured or killed others) is evidence of God.

So what if God wants to call me from the comfort of my "self"?

What small thing can it be to approach a stranger to remind them that, while the world has become so incredibly chaotic, there is still something good in their lives?

I started practicing this experience a month or so ago by talking with random people in check-out lines. Imagine scanning items, filling propane, or in any other way doing your job when someone says "tell me something good."

Do you know what the most common response was (if they even responded, after looking at me like I was crazy!)

"I woke up this morning."

I suspect that this is the most common answer I will receive as Lindsay and I get a cross-section sample of America over the next 6 weeks. Which is troubling.

It means that most people in Anytown, America find that the best part about their life is simply the fact that they woke up.

No dreams.

No hopes.

No calling.

Just waking up.

While I hope to dig deeper into the lives of the people we will meet, I know that I may not be able to change their perspective or the circumstances in their lives that make waking up the best part of being alive.

But what I do hope is that the stories we find and share, even those of people "just waking up," will transform the lives of anyone willing to take the time to watch and engage with Someone Tell Chris.

I will not belittle the miracle of life.

But I hope to find, and share, that while the world may be collapsing around some people and while they may have suffered a great catastrophe or loss in their lives, there are still good things going on in the lives of people in communities all across America.

It is far easier to write about what I hope will happen than it is to put the shirt on, walk to a busy intersection and start talking with strangers.

But I'm not looking for an easy life.

I'm looking for a life that helps you and others see the good in the world all around you.

And it is at this point that Lindsay and I thought it was time to ask you to do a few small things for us:

• Join our Someone Tell Chris Facebook group. Read other encouraging stories. Share some of your own from time to time. Let the world know what's good.
• Share the group with people you know and encourage them to do the same. We're at a catch-22 of sorts, where we know it's going to take people to help us reach the critical mass to reach more people. We appreciate your helping us reach that critical mass.
• Stay tuned on either/or/both our Called To Wander Facebook Page and our Someone Tell Chris Facebook Page for updates, behind-the-scenes observations and stories as we travel across the country. I'm not known for consistency. But I'm going to do my best (which is why we're working hard this week to wrap up our caravan business to focus entirely on this journey).

We plan to reach Chicago by mid-May, where we will have completed the 2,500-mile route and (hopefully) have captured hundreds of stories of good things taking place in the small towns and large cities along the route.

But we're going to spend all of June working on putting the stories together in episodic form, to be released the week after the 4th of July.

Thus, the benefit to you is to follow along as we're actually filming the stories we will later publish.

God-willing, if we're successful with finding encouraging stories along Route 66, we'll pause briefly to live and work in South Dakota before picking up the trail again for Someone Tell Chris as we head west and south toward Baja in the fall.

I'm scared to share our plans. They've broken so many times.

I'm afraid to approach strangers. They may judge me as crazy, or worse.

I'm anxious about the uncertainty of the journey. It means I can't control everything the way I want.

But I sense that, at least at this point in time, God is redeeming chapters of our lives that we thought were lost and worthless for a chapter that will transform lives.

But I suspect that if we complete the task before us, even if we don't release a single video to the public, that at least one person will have changed.

I'm ready to change. Despite my fear of what that means.

I'm looking forward to becoming a better person. Even though I don't think I'm that terrible now.

I'm open to the idea that God will do far more than I can imagine. Though I've learned to be OK with how things are.

This is the unknown that we are entering into, and the discomfort I am prepared to face.

Lindsay and I appreciate your support, prayers, notes from time to time and anything you can do to share Someone Tell Chris with anyone you think might need some inspiration, or whose story needs to be shared to help others through tough times.

I don't want to look back one day and find that waking up is the only good thing in my life.

And I don't think I'm alone.

We understand if you want to unsubscribe because this is not what you thought you were signing up for.

But we hope you will realize that Someone Tell Chris is for everyone, including you!

Thanks for being a part of our wander...

With love,

Chris (& Lindsay + Everest + Huckleberry!)

PS - As more evidence of God's love for us, despite who we are and what we've done, God recently redeemed our failure to start Lindsay's Fishing All 50 adventure by allowing her to catch a marlin and release her father's ashes into the sea as a memorial to all he was in her life. There's a good story everywhere! Just look for it!