Many of us have Interstates to Live Our Lives By. Mine is 75, and to a much lesser degree, 40, and when you get to where the twain shall meet (aka "Malfunction Junction" in K-Town), you’ve got all the good old days you could ever call for.

Up and down, up and down. How many times have I traveled great stretches of it during my lifetime? Way too many to count. With your family living in Knoxville and you in Florida, that’s not too surprising. The absolutely worst stretch is Macon on south. What happens is that you get to Macon, go around it on the bypapss, and although your heart leaps because that heart is telling you you’re now in "South Georgia," which is close to "Florida," that first mileage sign you see says something like 148 miles to Valdosta. And Valdosta is still a few miles from the border. So, once again, you watch the train of towns you’ve memorized: Perry…Cordele…Tifton…Adel… fly by, hazy in the heat.

The growth of Atlanta continues to astonish…will it ever stop? I hardly ever make it out east, unless we’ve got a Conyers stop planned or decided upon, so I can’t include that in my comparison, but it seems that the growth on the north  –  Cobb, of course, but now in the south (I don’t know the county, but all I know is that 10 years ago, that Mount Zion exit was built in the middle of nowhere..and now it’s in the middle of lots of things)…just won’t slow down.

The past couple of years that I’ve driven down 75, I’ve meditated on travelers and their needs. Monasteries, of course, used to provide for them, and now we have restaurants, hotels, and, to fill not a need but wants, ahem, "spas" and the Cafe Eroticas and their imitators.

What of the traveler’s spiritual needs?

Oh, we are in such a hurry, I know. But why not…why not, along that stretch of highway, one or two Travelers’ Chapels, run by a religious order, which would provide free water and coffee, maps, a religious present at all times for counsel or confession, pamphlets and a quiet space?

They could even set up near the Cafe Erotica. Who knows who might drop in?

I can’t imagine that no such thing exists anywhere in this country…has anyone encountered such a spot?