Back in my Army days in the late 1960s I spent most of my tour of duty as editor of the Berlin Observer, which we facetiously called the only “free” newspaper behind the Iron Curtain. There was nothing free about it, course – the canned editorials were sent down from Command, and we had to run all sorts of organizational drivel – but as a draftee I managed to escape the fate of being assigned to an infantry unit and found myself doing cool things like interviewing Creedence Clearwater Revival during their European tour and writing movie and record reviews for the troops stationed near the Wall.

On one occasion I interviewed Charlie the “Road Runner,” a double leg amputee whose singular purpose was to make a trip around the world in his wheelchair and preach the Good News of the Gospel. Charlie was an entrepreneur – he depended on donations and good will to finance his travels – and when he found out I was editor of an American newspaper and could possibly gin up some publicity for him, he glommed on to me like a fly on stale meat.

Get the Drift for one person’s perspective on the road runners of the world.