He sat down next to me at the counter like he'd done it a thousand times, because he had. Different counter, different state, same stool. He drove cars for dealerships. Picked them up in one place, delivered them somewhere else, and filled the miles in between with diners just like this one. He'd seen enough of this country to stop being surprised by it.

He told me the world had gotten loud. That most people he sat next to anymore were either angry about something or worn down from pretending they weren't. He wasn't complaining. Just reporting. The way a man who has driven every road learns to report. Then he said something I didn't expect. He said he liked my laugh. Said it plain, the way people say things when they actually mean them.

This week's Roadside Notes is about what happens when a stranger pulls off the highway not for the coffee but because something in him needed to see that it was still possible. That a person could move through all of it and still have a light in them. You don't always know what you're giving people when you show up with something genuine in you. Sometimes you're just having coffee. Sometimes you're the answer to a question somebody carried in from the highway and didn't know how to ask. Both can happen on the same Tuesday.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/07/02/the-man-who-drove-every-road/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

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. That's when they pulled in. An older car moving carefully into the handicap space. And then everything slowed down.

He was old. Fragile in the way that men who were once very strong sometimes become. Getting out of that car took everything he had. When he finally stood, he straightened up and adjusted his sweater the way a marine adjusts his dress uniform. Like it mattered. Like he still had somewhere worth showing up to. He retrieved the walker, opened her door, positioned it at just the right angle, and walked her inside. I don't think he saw a single person watching. I don't think it would have changed anything if he had.

This week's Roadside Notes is about what happens when kindness moves before you do. Nobody planned it. Nothing dramatic happened. An old man loved his wife well in a parking lot. A stranger held a door. Two menus got grabbed without thinking. That's all it was. And somehow it was everything. Kindness costs nothing. But what it gives back is something you carry for a long time.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/06/25/kindness-costs-nothing/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

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 on I-40 just out of Kingman. No signal, no GPS worth trusting, just heat waves and a frontage road that hadn't seen a map update since the Eisenhower administration. That's when I saw him. A kid sitting on the hood of a busted car, flipping a coin like he was in quiet conversation with the universe.

He wasn't flagging anyone down. He wasn't panicking. He was just waiting. And when I pulled over and asked if he needed a ride, he said something I didn't expect. "I don't need a map. I just need a reason." He'd left a bad place and didn't know exactly where he was headed. Only that staying behind was no longer an option.

This week's Roadside Notes is about what happens when you miss the exit and end up exactly where you were supposed to be. Grace doesn't always announce itself with flashing arrows or clear outcomes. Sometimes it shows up as a detour, a kid on the hood of a car, and a coin with no wrong side. This one is for anyone who's ever wondered whether the unplanned turns in life are leading somewhere worth going. They are.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/06/18/grace-takes-the-detour/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

It wasn't a remarkable day. Just the road and a reason to stop. A handwritten sign in a diner pie case. Buy one, get one. Nothing spiritual about it. Just a bakery that made a little too much and a diner trying to move it before closing. But somewhere between the first cup of coffee and the second, something shifted quietly. And a few miles down the road, a man standing on a corner with a handwritten sign that said Hungry got a piece of pie he wasn't expecting.

Kindness is not always reactive. Sometimes the decision comes first. Before the moment. Before the need is even visible. This week's Roadside Notes is about what happens when you start living a little more ready than you used to. Hands a little more open. A quiet yes made in a diner before you even know where it's going.

It doesn't take much. A second cup of coffee. An extra slice of pie. A few dollars set aside just in case the road puts something in front of you that you didn't plan for. This one is for anyone who's ever wondered whether staying ready makes a difference. It does. More than you think.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/06/11/kindness-is-not-always-reactive/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

I was sitting at a Route 66 diner not long ago, hands wrapped around a cup of coffee, watching the quiet rhythm of the morning unfold. The kind of place where the plates clink softly, the coffee keeps coming, and nobody's in too much of a hurry. Then something small broke the pattern in the best possible way.

The waitress poured a little more coffee, paused, and said she wanted to cover mine. Not because of anything big. Just because she'd noticed. And in that one quiet moment at a diner counter, something came back around that I hadn't thought twice about giving. That's the whole story. And it's bigger than it sounds.

This week's Roadside Notes is for anyone who's ever wondered whether the small things count. The quiet kindness nobody saw. The breakfast you picked up for someone without making a thing of it. The moment you chose to notice someone who might otherwise go unnoticed. They count. More than you think. Maybe more than you'll ever know.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/06/04/coffee-came-back/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

There's a quiet truth that lives on both sides of the same coin. Every morning is one more day. And every morning is one less day. Most of us live on one side of that and never think much about the other. This week's Roadside Notes sits with both at the same time.

One More Day isn't meant to frighten you. It's meant to wake you up. When you understand both sides of that truth, the ordinary moments of life begin to shine a little brighter. Today is one more chance to show kindness, repair something broken, or tell someone they matter. And it's one less reason to put love, grace, or courage off until tomorrow.

This entry is short, honest, and worth sitting with over your morning coffee. It won't take long to read. It might stay with you longer than you expect.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/28/one-more-day/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

Most of us have sat across from someone who was carrying grief and didn't know what to say. This episode begins at a diner counter with a man who'd lost his wife the previous winter and said something that stopped the morning cold. "Everyone keeps telling me the grief will pass. I'm not sure I want it to." That one sentence opens a quiet conversation about what grief actually is and why we've been thinking about it wrong.

Grief isn't a problem to be solved or a phase to push through. It's the echo of a love that had nowhere left to go. The pain we carry after losing someone isn't a sign that something is broken. It's proof that something real and irreplaceable once lived. This episode sits with that truth gently, without rushing past it.

You'll hear stories about the little things that stay with us after someone is gone, the humming in the kitchen, the hand reached for crossing a street, the habits that outlast the person. And somewhere in those small details, a different way of understanding grief begins to take shape.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/21/grief-is-the-echo-of-love/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives

There is a quiet idea behind the way some character performers at Disney parks approach a child's hug. They don't end it. The child decides when it's over. Whether it's official policy or simply something passed along doesn't matter much. What matters is the heart behind it. You never know how much that child might need that hug.

This week's Roadside Notes entry explores what happens when we stop rushing kindness. The world moves fast, and most of us have learned to keep pace with it. Conversations get shortened. Encouragement turns into quick advice. Presence gets replaced by schedule. But real kindness sometimes asks for something different. It asks us to stay a little longer, listen a little deeper, and let the moment last as long as it needs to.

Don't Be The First To Let Go is a reflection on the kind of grace that rarely makes headlines but is often the thing people remember years later. The person who stayed. The moment that wasn't rushed. The kindness that didn't need a reason to keep going.

📖 Read the full Journal entry: https://faithandgoodcourage.com/2026/05/14/dont-be-the-first/

🎙️ Roadside Notes is a reading series from the Faith and Good Courage Journal, stories of grace, grit, and second chances written and read by Christopher Tuttle, The Route 66 Chaplain.

#FaithAndGoodCourage #faithgoodcourage #Route66Chaplain #ChristopherTuttle #RoadsideWisdom #Rule66 #HealingHighway #KindnessForTheRoad #QuietStrength #TheCompassionDeficit #WitWisdomAndDinerMoments #GraceOnTheGo #route66 #matthew25lives