We hit the road at 4 a.m. on July 5. Seventeen hours later we rolled into Destin, Florida, where the traffic was bumper-to-bumper. The trip included a 3-hour layover in Nashville to repair the 70 mph blowout on the rental truck (the Ryder guy was there within one hour)…and a Hollywood-style car fire (not ours) north of Montgomery. But neither of these events held my fascination like the guy hiking through southern Illinois, carrying a cross. Whatever his well-intended message, it was diluted (for me) by the wheels he’d affixed to the base of the cross. I mean, if you’re going to put wheels on the cross, why not construct it of balsa wood. Or Styrofoam. Or make it inflatable. It reminded me of the Candice Bergen scene in Carnal Knowledge.