Providing Home Hospitality
for Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow

Married in June 2001, Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow have lived entirely on the road since April 2002, teaching and preaching the 14 billion year story of the Universe in sacred ways. Our work is possible only through the generosity of countless individuals, families, and organizations who have provided us with hospitality along the way.

Our needs are minimal:

  • We generally prefer to sleep in our van, so no bed is required. It has no heat, so we can only do this when it is above freezing. Our van, which we affectionately call "Angel," is 9 feet tall and 20 feet long (see photo below). We are fine with parking in the driveway or on the street, whichever is best for our hosts. Our van is too tall for carports.


  • Angel is a van, not an RV. We do not need power hookup but we do need access to a bathroom, kitchen, and a place to plug in and work on our laptop computers during the day. A guest room where we can set up our portable tables and laptops to create a mini-office is very much appreciated.

  • Your pets are no problem for us. We love cats and dogs.

  • We very much appreciate a room that we can retreat to for privacy, but for single-night visits this is not necessary.

  • We are quiet, clean, tidy, and pretty much just work on our computers all day long. Connie is happy to prepare breakfast for ourselves on Sunday mornings, and for longer stays we will purchase foodstocks and cook our own meals and snacks. Of course, if our hosts offer us a meal, we will not refuse! Michael generally enjoys doing dishes.

  • The longer we can stay at one location, the better for us. (And housesitting/petsitting is absolutely heavenly as we rarely have a home to ourselves and LOVE it when we do!)

  • We also very much appreciate a fairly quiet section of the house, if we are there for more than one night. We have card tables with us that we set up to use with our laptop computers.

  • You don't need to entertain us; we relish opportunities to simply work on our computers, although Connie appreciates suggestions for where to take walks.

  • Seasonally, we like to take a 1-2 week-long retreat somewhere in which we can spend time by ourselves, in a cabin, second-home, or house- or pet-sitting while the owners are away. In fact, this sort of "retreat time" is so important to us that we sometimes build our speaking engagement schedule around such opportunities. Please let us know if something along these lines might be worked out in the future!

  • FOOD: We eat and enjoy anything! If you have food available, great! If not, let us know and we will bring our own. We are skilled at scrounging in refrigerators to make meals for ourselves, so cook for us only if you wish. Milk and plain yogurt (whole or lowfat preferred; not nonfat), eggs, mult-grain bread, and cottage cheese are appreciated, as well as fruits and salad fixings. We eat virtually everything gratefully.

    HOW WE CAN FIND YOU. Because we have a GPS system in our van, those who offer home hospitality need do no more than supply us with their full street address and phone numbers (home and cell, if you have one). Please include your zip code too, in case we need to have any of our mail forwarded to your place for our arrival.

    HOW YOU CAN CONTACT US. Generally, we have our personal assistant, Mia Van Meter in communication with you. You can contact her at Michael@TheGreatStory.org. Or you can leave a message for Michael personally on his cell phone: 425-760-9941.

    We thank you in advance for sharing your home or institutional housing with us!

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