As Sophie and Seth Beal's dad packed the rented 29-foot recreation vehicle for the family's vacation last summer, he prepared for an odyssey to places like Holy Land U.S.A. Nature Sanctuary, Noah's Ark, Paradise Garden and Cross Garden.

Timothy Beal, Case Western Reserve University's Harkness Professor of Biblical Studies, headed down the interstates and highways of America in search of material for a new book on religious spectacles.

After more than three weeks on the road, the four Beals, including wife Clover, found religion at sites off beaten, tire-worn paths in places like Bedford, Va.; Cleveland, Tenn.; Prattville, Ala.; Murphy, N.C.; and Chautauqua, N.Y.

"I think religion is often most interesting where it is least expected," said Beal, the author of Religion and its Monsters.

Several years ago, Beal's interest in the subject was triggered by seeing what looked like a multi-level parking garage under construction off Interstate 68 in Frostburg, Md. It turned out to be the skeletal shell of a life-sized replica of Noah's Ark.

"When you see something like that, your first reaction is 'what?!?!' But soon the question turns to 'who?' and 'why?'" Beal said.

He began to wonder what motivates people to build or recreate biblical scenes and other sacred sites. What inspires someone to build a miniature golf course called Golgotha Fun Park or "The World's Largest Ten Commandments."

Beal began collecting information on such roadside and religious spectacles, scanning special Web sites devoted to wayside oddities and tourist bureaus, writing to chambers of commerce and searching other sources of information. From that, he pulled together the itinerary for what he calls a "roadside approach to exploring religion in America."

After thousands of miles on the road, he began to see several common themes emerge, such as pilgrimage, the creation of sacred space, the relationship between religious vision and madness, apocalypticism, devotion and creativity.

"They see themselves as visionaries," Beal said.

Bill Rice of Cross Gardens in Prattville, Ala., is one such individual. Beal said Rice believes he has been told by God since the 1970s to put crosses in his yard. Now his thousands of crosses, made of scrapped wood and recycled garbage, stretch over 11 acres and deliver such messages as "You will die. Hell is hot, hot, hot."

Others like the late Howard Finster from Summerville, Ga., have reached celebrity status in the folk art world. His religious creations in Paradise Gardens encompass a neighborhood block and his art has appeared on the covers of rock star albums.

"They think of their places as their churches and think of their work as doing some kind of ministry for the people who come and visit them," Beal said.

Visiting the site is often meant to be a pilgrimage of sorts-a walk through a story, he added.

An example of this is Holy Land U.S.A. Nature Sanctuary in Bedford, Va., a three-mile open-air, trailer-truck ride through a one-to-100 scale representation of biblical Israel that takes you through a journey of the life of Jesus, from birth to miracles and teachings to the crucifixion to the empty tomb. The site stands on a former government-owned whiskey mill.

Beal also discovered that many creators of the sites are solitary individuals, with few connections to any religious community.

One exception was Joseph Zoetl, a Benedictine monk, was a coal shoveler at the Cullman, Ala., monastery. Zoetl never left the monastery, but over his lifetime collected broken plates and other throwaways to recreate religious landmarks from pictures and postcards he received. By the 1930s, people were flocking to see his Ave Maria Grotto.

Beal found that for Zoetl, the building of the grotto was a form of religious devotion-his way of meditating about sacred places without going. It was his longing for something that was inaccessible and that he would never see or occupy.

For Beal, his own pilgrimage was just the start. He has future plans to visit a tabernacle in Lancaster, Pa.; a bible museum in Mansfield; the world's largest rosary collection in Oregon; the Birds of the Bible Show in Indiana; and the new Holy Land Experience in Orlando that competes with Disney World.

"I hear Abraham is there," Beal said, and "I want his signature for my scrapbook!"