The entire trip had been planned on short notice,

The entire trip had been planned on short notice, and some of the details had to be worked out along the way. They three riders were followed constantly by a support vehicle, a Winnebago with a large sign proclaiming, “Thank You Korean War Veterans."

In an effort to conserve money, the riders had planned to spend every other night in the van, alternating with hotel rooms along the way. They quickly found out that a shower every night was absolutely essential, and gave up on the idea of staying in the Winnebago.

Though they did stop for sightseeing, most days were spent, “sleeping, eating and riding,” said Butler. “We were always hungry. We ate five or six meals a day. Breakfast and lunch we’d eat out of the van, but we always went to a restaurant for dinner. We could only afford to go to places with a buffet, or all-you-can-eat. Otherwise we would have had to order two or three meals each.”

“I’m still hungry,” he laughed.

Between coasts, they rode through every possible kind of weather including snow, rain, floods, fog, hail and even a tornado in Kansas. “The temperature was about 118 degrees when we were riding through the desert,” Bulter said. “We’d drink about 10 gallons of water a day between the three of us.”

The state of Missouri got Butler’s vote for the most beautiful, though parts of Arizona and Colorado impressed him as well. He was quick to dispel the common notion that Kansas is flat. “Northern Kansas is definitely not flat. Trust me on this,” he grinned.

Interestingly, it was the last two days, traversing the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania, that were the most difficult. “In the west, the mountains are more rolling,” he said. “Eastern mountains are almost straight up and straight down.”

Support for the riders and their cause was garnered along the way. But there were some questionable moments.

When they reached Colorado, they also reached the end of their