I met the Bardens this morning as I was leaving the Super 8. They were heading home to Champaign, IL. Mrs. Barden said she had met Mr. Barden after her husband died and they had been together for twenty-three years. She asked, "Are you a believer?" I said, "Yes, I was believer in people, but not in any organized religion." They accepted this and Mr. Barden gave me this cross. He made it and said he had given away over 11,000 of them. "Be careful on the road," he said. "There's a lot of crazy people out there."
Onward to Hannibal to pay a kind of homage to Mark Twain. I found him hawking water and food and generally supporting the town. Can I get an Amen to that?