Recently in On the Road Category

Tim Murphy at the Religion News Service wrote a piece about the Roadshow stop in Washington D.C. Read it HERE.

It seems that the longer we are on tour the crazier Preacher Withee becomes-- louder and more ferverent and full of spit and revival fire. He keeps giving it a whoop, and a push, and all he's got.

We arrived at Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan yesterday afternoon shortly before the Moslim time of prayer. There is a modest mosque next door to the church that has become an overwhelmingly popular mid-day prayer destination. The mosque was filled and the overflow of hundreds of men, young and old lined the sidewalk on 29th street to observe the time of prayer, removing their shoes and sharing their prayer rugs with one another as they stood, kneeled and bowed. It was quite arresting to see hundreds of men bowing on the ground on the sidewalks of New York-- a startling demonstration of public faith and solidarity. We joined many of these men in the crowded line at the Pakistani restaurant next to the mosque after the prayer service concluded- and enjoyed a nice curry lunch.

When I was 16 years old my family moved from urban Minneapolis to rural Alabama. I went from a large inner city liberal arts magnet school to a rural county high school where I graduated in a class of 41 students. Moving to Alabama was a real culture shock for me --and I am continually grateful for the way it expanded the horizon of my world. Thus, the most highly anticipated stop on the tour for me was Birmingham, Alabama, just up the road from Tuscaloosa where I went to University in the late 1980's. And I was not disappointed. We ate Dreamland Ribs in Tuscaloosa and we were recipients of so much friendliness and Southern hospitality. On Saturday night we were hosted by a most remarkable church called Disciple's Fellowship.

During our stop in New Orleans Kiwi Dave and I had an opportunity to see the lingering devastation of hurricane Katrina. It was heartwarming to see how the people of New Orleans have rallied together to rebuild their city--with the help of so many friends from across the country. New Orleans certainly has a unique and lively local culture of jazz music, Cajun and Creole cuisine and joie de vivre that is alive and well.

We're right in the middle of the show in Manhattan. Doug is delivering his monologue at this moment. We arrived in Secaucus, NJ last night at 3am and parked in a Walmart parking lot. Around 10:30am we got up and...

As we stepped out of the RV, Mark turned to me and said, "This feels like tobacco territory." We were in Burlington, North Carolina, in the parking lot of JR Cigars, home to the largest humidor in the world. Walking...

So, believe it or not, we'd rather not drive our whole 40' RV with trailer into Manhattan on Friday. We're looking for somewhere safe to drop the RV and borrow or rent a truck with which we can pull the...

Last week we had a few days off from the tour and Tony and I went to see Dark Knight, the new Batman franchise film. Indeed this film was more sinister and melancholy than so many super hero movies--and yet...

We've been to a lot of cities so far, and it's funny how many people in these cities claim that they are: - The buckle of the Bible belt - The least churched city in America - The city with...

For the next four days we have a documentary filmmaker traveling in the RV with us recording our every movement and conversation (ala. Cinéma vérité technique). He joined us yesterday and has filmed us doing the show, loading up the...

We've had some great shows in the past few days, but last night may have taken the cake. We presented our show in the basement of the stately First United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kansas. The basement was packed --...

It's Saturday, and that means Religion sections in most major newspapers. And, believe it or not, some of them are covering the Roadshow: Fort Worth Omaha Tulsa Austin...

If you've been to the show, or seen my YouTube videos (or even on the off-chance that you've read my book), you know that Trucker Frank is a friend of mine and a guy I've spent some time with. Well,...

As Doug and I were driving the RV from Bend to Edina last week, I read to him the essay by Andrew Root on Lost and eschatology. Being that Doug and I are both fans of Lost and of eschatology,...

When we were planning this tour I expected that we would have a bit of time each day to hang out in neighborhoods and taste the local specialty cuisine--like Stumptown Coffee in Portland. Instead we often arrive just in time...

See Right Sidebar for Info and Tour Dates Doug and I pulled out of Bend, Oregon at about 10:30pm on Tuesday night, following the final show of the West Coast leg of the tour. Over the next 42 hours, we...

Allow me to disabuse you of the notion, should you be so temped, to think that being on a 32-city tour is in any way glamorous. First it's amazing how much energy goes into set up and take down of...

We are heading to Bend, Oregon for the 12th show of this first leg. The tour has gone great. But exhausting. Last night in Seattle, we had the privilege of hosting our friend from the Emergent Jewish Rabbi network (we...

In the memorandum that we sent out to hosts for the Church Basement Roadshow, we delicately requested a healthy meal before the show (i.e. No pizza). The organizers of our first three shows interpreted "healthy" in exactly the same fashion...

While chatting with Mickey Maudlin after our show in San Francisco on Thursday, he happened to mention that Harper One had flown N.T. Wright over for the day to appear on The Colbert Report. Well, the adrenaline rush of the...

SEE THE RIGHT SIDEBAR FOR INFO AND TOUR DATES Julie flew in to SFO last night and joined us halfway through the show. We had a great night at the Inn, including a midnight burrito on the streets of the...

We had a great time in the 'burbs of Sacramento last night in a bright, gleaming new church on a hill. After a beverage in the parking lot with some of our volunteers, we pulled out the RV for the...

(See right sidebar for info and tour dates) Three forty-year-old guys in an RV all summer, pretending to be revival preachers from a century ago. Sounds unlikely? Well, it is. And just about every night, sometime during the show, I...

For Info and Tour Dates Show update from Fresno, California After a lovely day off (our only one of this leg of the tour) we rolled into Fresno, California to University Presbyterian church. The people were friendly, helpful and encouraging....

Click here for Info and Tour Dates We received this nice note from one of our opening weekend hosts: A quick note to say how thankful we are that you rolled through our town. The Spirits fires been a blown'...

The 40" Country Coach Tribute 260 that we're driving is not our own, nor are we renting it. It is owned by a longtime friend and all-around great guy, Michael Toy. Michael is also a sporadic blogger, and he's...

View Tour Schedule HERE - Come and Join us....

View the Tour Schedule Here On Saturday, after we groggily got up in the RV and packed everything up in Santa Monica, we drove into LA and lunched with our friends at IKAR Synagogue. Sharon Brous, the rabbi at IKAR...