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Burr Ridge man completes capitols tour
Burr Ridge resident Mickey Straub completed his tour of all 50 state capitols with a reading of the Gettysburg Address on the steps of the Illinois capitol in Springfield Oct. 17. | Photo courtesy of Mickey Straub.
BY THE NUMBERS
15,000 miles driven
50 state capitols visited
44 days traveling
33 hotels stayed in
4 flights
1 bucket list item complete
Updated: December 24, 2012 1:17AM
BURR RIDGE —Burr Ridge resident Mickey Straub set out Sept. 4 to visit the nation’s 50 capitols within 50 days. And the rainstorm and faulty windshield wipers he encountered on his first night weren’t the only challenges the 55-year-old would face along the way.
“This took every ounce of energy I could find,” Straub said.
He spent long hours on the road, encountered car trouble and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches out of his trunk. But in the end, Straub said it was all worth the effort.
“It really was life changing,” he said.
Straub set out in search of God, liberty and Abraham Lincoln, and found signs of all three along the way. Where he didn’t find God in the buildings he visited, Straub said he found him in the people he met.
“Every time I got down, something happened to help me keep going,” said Straub, who said he was impressed with the “general goodness of people.”
Straub’s tour began where his hero delivered his most famous speech. He read the Gettysburg address with the mayor of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Penn.
Along the way Straub visited with old friends, met new ones, and made memories that will last a lifetime. He even got a taste of the limelight as he appeared on several local news broadcasts and newspapers.
He finished his trip Oct. 17, six days short of his 50-day deadline, by reading the famous address on the steps of the capitol in Springfield.
“It was amazing,” he said.
