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“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson

That, in a nutshell, describes year 2019. We began the year navigating a super weird world of viral internet fame. Our stupid old van opened the door to a number of interesting opportunities. One such opportunity was authoring a book based on our adventures in our viral van. I wrote a rough draft, found someone crazy enough to publish it, and made plans to make it happen. 2019 was off to a weird, but great start. Then, we had a wedding. Mary got married. We laughed. We cried. We danced. Fun times. 2019 was rolling along just fine. As a family, we made a number of plans for the remainder of the year. We planned an epic road trip over the summer–up through Utah, Idaha, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and back to Amarillo. We planned a summer of weekly hangouts with our friends in the refugee community. We planned an office relocation. We planned a number of activities with our home church. We planned a couple home renovation projects. We planned a number of kids’ activities. We planned a 13th birthday getaway with one of our daughters. We had a lot of fun plans.  Read more... (1046 words, 2 images, estimated 4:11 mins reading time)

You guys, writing a book is hard work!

I completed the rough draft copy of the Struggle Bus book at the end of January and handed out copies to a few wonderful people. These wonderful people had a couple important jobs after reading my rough draft: 1) be honest with me as to whether or not I should move forward; and, 2) make sure that, if I move forward, nothing I wrote inadvertently brings shame upon my family.  Read more... (511 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

You’re here because you opted to be notified about updates related to my upcoming Struggle Bus book. Here is the rough draft copy of the introduction to the book. I won’t be promoting this particular post on social media. It’s just for you wonderful people who’ve expressed interest in my upcoming book (I thought a link would be better than an email attachment). You’ll have to wait on the full 14 chapters of Struggle Bus/Wood family adventures for a little bit longer. How much longer? I have no idea…but, the rough draft is almost done, and I’m making a little progress every day. I hope to update you again soon. Thank you for taking an interest in my writing. This has been a fun adventure. God bless.  Read more... (2969 words, estimated 11:53 mins reading time)

Since my original Craigslist listing expired, I’ve been asked to provide a permanent link to the ad. Here you go. I leave this here for anyone interested. Yes, the van was sold! And, yes, I’m still working on the book. More to come soon!

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For anyone interested, here’s an excerpt from the book I’m working on. Yes, I’ve devoted an entire chapter to “It still does its job, but it looks stupid.” Enjoy. Feel free to send me some feedback and share this with any runner friends who might appreciate it.

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I’m somewhere between a third and halfway done with my book project (shameless plug: sign up on the right side of this page to be notified when it’s ready). I’ll try to post an excerpt for the internet’s review next week. Writing a book is hard, you guys….but it’s also a lot of fun. I’m excited to finish the thing and see what the world thinks.  Read more... (654 words, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

I’m still in shock over the amount of attention that the Craigslist post has received. Amazing. What’s been even more amazing is the number of positive, encouraging messages I’ve received from all over the country. The Struggle Bus–the van that, prior to its cleaning, was referred to as a “rolling dumpster”–has a fan club. That gives me much joy. Thank you, internet world. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, or if you’d like to read some Struggle Bus-related news, I’ve added some links at the bottom of this post.  Read more... (332 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)