Off the Beaten Path: The Road Begins By Herb Hall

Elias Maddox wasn’t looking to begin again—especially not with three grieving children, an empty house full of echoes, and a heart still healing after loss. But when a mysterious letter arrives from a long-lost uncle named Silas, Elias finds himself standing at the edge of something unexpected: an inheritance that isn’t just land or property, but a journey.

With nothing but a hand-drawn map and a cryptic message—“Stop when it feels like home”—Elias loads up his old truck and sets out along the coast of Maine with his three children: Noah, a brooding teenager wrestling with anger and regret; Sadie, a quiet middle child who sees more than she says and sketches what words can’t express; and Micah, the youngest, full of wonder, questions, and a stuffed dolphin named Admiral.

Their first stop leads them to Hollow Bay, a hidden fishing village where time moves slower and stories linger in the walls of a weathered inn. There, they meet Maureen, a woman who seems to know more about them than she should—and who remembers a version of Elias from long ago.

As the Maddox family follows Silas’s map from one stop to the next, the road becomes more than a journey. It’s a path toward healing, toward memory, and toward each other. With every punched card, every lantern lit, and every stranger who somehow feels like family, Elias and his children begin to discover that what they lost may lead them to what they need most: belonging.

The Road Begins is a tender, lyrical story about family, grief, rediscovery, and the sacred spaces that call us home—not with answers, but with welcome.