As we complete our (self-appointed) challenge to visit a new church and bar every week, this is probably a good time to try to quantify what we’ve accomplished since we started writing about churches at the end of 2014. We were a little surprised by some of the numbers we found.
If you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (and you might as well!), you already know that while we won't be visiting new bars or churches on a regular basis, you can still follow us at deanandmindy.com and moviechurches.com Over the next month or so, we'll be doing some renovations around here so you can find all our bar and church adventures in one place. Who knows? We might even have a few more books to tell you about!
Until then, these are the statistics you're looking for:
Churches
Churches and worship services visited and written about since November 2014: 221 (There have been 216 Sundays)
Ministries or church-related activities: about 50
Times we were late for church: 2 (here and here)
Times we showed up at the wrong church: 1
Weeks we didn’t go to a new church: 8
Worship services one of us went to alone: 7 (usually due to travel or work schedules)
Bars
Number of bars visited and written about since January 2016: 139 (156 weeks since we started visiting bars)
Number of bars Dean made up for an April Fool’s day post: 4
Bars where we didn’t order alcohol: 2 (one by accident)
Weeks we didn’t walk into a new bar: 20 (since January 2016)
Times we were late for church: 2 (here and here)
Times we showed up at the wrong church: 1
Weeks we didn’t go to a new church: 8
Worship services one of us went to alone: 7 (usually due to travel or work schedules)
Bars
Number of bars visited and written about since January 2016: 139 (156 weeks since we started visiting bars)
Number of bars Dean made up for an April Fool’s day post: 4
Bars where we didn’t order alcohol: 2 (one by accident)
Weeks we didn’t walk into a new bar: 20 (since January 2016)
How many blog posts?
Dean and Mindy go to church -- 460, started September 2014
Movie Churches -- 323, started 2015 (spinoff from Dean and Mindy go to church)
Dean and Mindy walk into a bar -- 192, started November 2015
Dean and Mindy -- 60, started February 2018
Total -- 1,035 (average of 6 posts per week since September 29, 2014)
How often were we asked not to take pictures? 2 (possibly 3)
Movie Churches -- 323, started 2015 (spinoff from Dean and Mindy go to church)
Dean and Mindy walk into a bar -- 192, started November 2015
Dean and Mindy -- 60, started February 2018
Total -- 1,035 (average of 6 posts per week since September 29, 2014)
How often were we asked not to take pictures? 2 (possibly 3)
How many full-time jobs since September 2014? (Mindy) 5, (Dean) 4
Where did we live (and work) when we weren't on the road?
Healdsburg (2014)
Santa Rosa (2015)
Fresno (2017)
How many nights were we on the road since starting the blogs? around 400, plus a couple of weeks Mindy visited family in Indiana and Washington.
How many miles did we travel for the blogs since November 2015? about 80,000 by car and 20,000 by air (current odometer reading on Harold Bijoux is 230,323). Most of those miles we were together, although Mindy had a couple of airplane trips alone, and we’ve both driven alone to churches.
If you want more about our 2016 adventure, you can read all that year's posts (they begin here and here) or get Cheers and Amen, our book about it. Find it here!