The Dale Earnhardt Memorial Pilgrimage is the last trip Judge Bekasu Holifield would have chosen for her vacation. But this year its her sister Justines turn to make their plans, and soon Bekasus boarding a silver cruise bus for a tour of Southern stock car speedways with Justine, their cousin Cayle, and a group of strangers--all of whose lives have somehow been touched by the legendary racer they never met. . . For Shane McKee, the tour is a chance to get married at the speedway with his hero there in spirit. New York stockbroker Terence Palmer has made the trip to honor his only link with the father he never knew. Rev. Bill Knight, whose hobby is medieval pilgrimages, agrees to chaperone a dying child--and finds himself on a strangely familiar journey of faith and devotion. Bekasu begins connecting with her fellow travelers in unexpected ways. But shes not the only one. As the bus rolls down an uncertain road, prayers will be answered, secrets will be revealed, bonds will be forged, and no one will leave this journey of self-discovery quite the same. "One of McCrumbs finer achievements. " --Denver Post & Rocky Mountain News "A wild ride! Sharyn McCrumb has done it again. " --Ward Burton, winner of the Daytona 500 Sharyn McCrumb is an award-winning writer whose novels have been both New York Times Bestsellers and Notable Books. McCrumbs honors include: The 2003 Wilma Dykeman Award for Literature given by the East Tennessee Historical Society; AWA Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature Award; Chaffin Award for Achievement in Southern Literature; Plattner Award for Short Story; Best Appalachian Novel. Her books have been translated into more than ten languages, and she was the first writer-in-residence at King College in Tennessee. In 2001 she served as fiction writer-in-residence at the WICE Conference in Paris. Sharyn McCrumb has lectured on her work at Oxford University, the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Bonn, Germany, and at universities and libraries throughout the country. She lives and writes in the Virginia Blue Ridge.