Daily Herald | Mayor’s epic road trip now in Congressional Record

A suburban mayor’s effort to recite Lincoln’s Gettysburg address at 50 state capitols in 50 days is now part of the Congressional Record.

U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton presented Burr Ridge Mayor Mickey Straub last week with the laminated text of the remarks the congressman made on the House floor about Straub’s accomplishment.

Straub drove 15,000 miles to 48 state capitols and flew to those in Hawaii and Alaska between Sept. 4 and Oct. 17, 2012. He began in Pennsylvania, near Gettysburg, and finished at Lincoln’s tomb near the Illinois Capitol in Springfield.

Straub, who estimates the trip cost him more than $20,000 and put thousands of miles on his Lincoln Town Car, says the journey deepened his faith and sense of patriotism.

“I launched the trip on behalf of God and country, but it was actually God and country that pulled me through,” he said. “It started more about principles and patriotism, but it was the people who kept me going.”