Final Report: Rally4Vets America 250 Grand Tour
Different Roads, Same Flag: 10,198 Miles Across America at 250
On June 11, we parked our white Subaru WRX covered in Rally4Vets graphics beside the Battleship IOWA in San Pedro, took a deep breath, and pointed it east. When we rolled back into El Segundo on October 29, the trip meter read 10,198.3 miles.
We call it the Rally4Vets 2026 America 250 Grand Tour, and it had three jobs:
Celebrate America's 250th birthday.
Honor the veterans who helped create and preserve our democracy.
And raise awareness of what today's veterans need, and of everything they still give to their communities.
We stopped at VFW and American Legion posts wherever we could. We visited every military museum and historic site that fit in a day's drive, and some that didn't. Along the way, we found something we'll be talking about for years: America is wonderfully, wildly different from one region to the next, and it is united by the same love of country and the same faith in democracy.
Fog, Redwoods and Wheat: The West Coast and Pacific Northwest
Our first night was at the Marines' Memorial Club in San Francisco, a living memorial to the Marines who fought in the Pacific. Its hallways are lined with photos and flags, and there's no better place to start a trip about service.
Then we went north up the coast. The Sonoma and Mendocino shoreline was wrapped in fog, and Humboldt Redwoods gave us trees that were already old when the Declaration was signed.
In Crescent City, VFW Post 1381 became our first post visit of the tour. It set the tone for everything that followed: open doors, strong coffee, and veterans happy to swap stories with strangers in a funny-looking car.
At the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, we stood in front of A Soldier's Return, a sculpture honoring Vietnam veterans. Many of us came home to silence. It meant a great deal to see a state say, in bronze and stone, "Welcome home."
After a warm visit with American Legion Post 30 and Gresham United VFW Post 180 and a stop at Multnomah Falls, we followed the Columbia River east.
Then the landscape flipped. Within a few hours, rain forest gave way to dry, golden hills.
We stopped at Maryhill Stonehenge, the first World War I memorial in the country, and at the Pendleton Air Museum, which tells the story of the Doolittle Raiders who trained there.
We toured the Gold Star Families Memorial in Walla Walla, watched a rainbow form in the mist at Palouse Falls, and finished the Northwest at VFW Post 1435 in Spokane.
That was the first big lesson of the trip. The Pacific Northwest is two different worlds stitched together, and the flag flies just as proudly over both.
Big Sky and Small Towns: The Mountains and the Plains
Montana welcomed us like family. A Bozeman TV crew interviewed us about the mission. In Gardiner, just outside Yellowstone, a sign told us exactly what to do: "Hug a Veteran." We happily complied.
Yellowstone delivered everything we'd hoped for. We drove through the Roosevelt Arch, met a black bear by the road, looked out over the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and crossed the Continental Divide. Then we held up our Grand Tour sign while Old Faithful went off right on schedule.
After the Cody Firearms Museum, we spent a quiet hour at Little Bighorn Battlefield. It's a place that asks you to think about courage and loss on every side of America's story. The answer it gives is that the whole story matters.
At Mount Rushmore, the 250th suddenly felt very real: four presidents carved in granite, with the flags of every state lined up below them.
Then came one of my favorite moments of the whole trip. The gate attendant handed me a card from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Association. I served with the 173rd on my first tour in Vietnam. Nearly six decades later, a stranger at a national memorial welcomed me back to the brigade.
At the retro Rocket Motel in Custer, we met a couple who summed up the whole tour. She works for the Veterans Administration, and her husband is an Army veteran. One of them takes care of veterans for a living, and the other spent years serving.
We went south through Hot Springs and into Nebraska, where Carhenge in Alliance was every bit as wonderfully odd as advertised. A few blocks away, a wall of veterans' portraits reminded us that on the Plains, the local VFW is often the heart of Main Street.
Everything's Bigger: Colorado and Texas
Denver gave us art, gardens, and a dashboard reading 108°F. Colorado Springs gave us the red rocks of Garden of the Gods. Then we crossed into Texas, said hello to the spray-painted Cadillacs outside Amarillo, and pointed the car toward the stop I'd been waiting for since the planning stage.
The National WASP WWII Museum sits at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, where the Women Air Force Service Pilots trained during World War II. More than 1,100 women earned their wings there. They ferried fighters and bombers, towed targets for live gunnery practice, and tested aircraft. Thirty-eight of them gave their lives. For decades, they weren't even recognized as veterans.
I logged about 1,000 combat flight hours in Vietnam. Standing in the hangar where these women learned to fly, I felt a deep kinship and a deep debt. The museum's banner says it best: "Women Fly Them All." If you're anywhere near West Texas, go. You'll leave inspired.
From there, Texas kept the history coming. We stopped at The Alamo in San Antonio, the state's own independence story, and made the required pilgrimage to Buc-ee's.
In Houston, the car hit 5,000 miles and got its oil change at Superior Subaru. Kudos to the whole team there: fast, friendly, and genuinely excited about the mission. We love the Subaru vibe. It helps that both of our organizations love dogs. Rally4Vets is raising money for service dogs, and Subaru may be the most dog-friendly car company on earth.
Sweet Tea and the Fourth of July: The Gulf Coast and the Southeast
If you only visit one military museum in your life, make it The National WWII Museum in New Orleans. It's huge, moving, and beautifully done, with aircraft hanging overhead and a question near the exit that stays with you: What message do you have for the World War II generation?
We went east on I-10 and collected Mississippi and Alabama welcome signs, then toured the USS ALABAMA in Mobile. On July 3, in the little Florida fishing town of Apalachicola, we watched fireworks light up the sky on the eve of Independence Day. In our 250th year, I can't think of a better place to be than a small American town celebrating together.
St. Augustine, the nation's oldest city, reminded us how deep America's roots run. Then the airmen took over. At the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force near Savannah, we stood before a bust of Jimmy Stewart, the Hollywood star who flew bombing missions over Europe.
At Patriots Point in Charleston, we walked the deck of the USS Yorktown, posed with Rosie the Riveter, and found a Huey helicopter in the Vietnam Experience exhibit. Seeing that Huey brought back a lot of memories.
Arrival in Virginia
We reached the capital region on July 9, at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico. Its soaring glass-and-steel spire honors the flag-raising at Iwo Jima. Inside, from vintage recruiting posters to the fallen heroes memorial outside, it tells 250 years of Marine Corps history.
We celebrated the arrival with a Rally4Vets event at Honor Brewing Co. in Chantilly, a brewery with the perfect name for the occasion.
Phase 2: Route 66 and the Southwest - The Road Home
The homeward leg began in October at the best possible starting line: Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, my alma mater, Class of 1967. Seeing the barracks again with the Rally4Vets car parked out front was a full-circle moment.
We headed west through the Casey Jones Railroad Museum in Jackson, Tennessee, and Fort Smith National Historic Site in Arkansas, then picked up Route 66 in the Texas Panhandle. McLean gave us the delightfully quirky Devil's Rope barbed-wire museum and a beautifully restored Phillips 66 station.
New Mexico was a history lesson in a single state. In Santa Fe, we visited VFW Post 2951, "Home of the Brave," and the Bataan Memorial Military Museum, which honors the New Mexico soldiers who endured the Bataan Death March.
In Los Alamos, we stood with the statues of Oppenheimer and General Groves and toured the Bradbury Science Museum.
Outside Albuquerque, at Petroglyph National Monument, we saw images carved into volcanic rock centuries before there was a United States.
Arizona saved some of its best for last. We saw the painted badlands of Petrified Forest National Park. We stood on the corner in Winslow and made a new friend with a guitar. We visited Meteor Crater and the telescopes of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, and we found peace among the red rocks of Sedona.
On October 29, we pulled into El Segundo with 10,198.3 miles on the trip meter, a car full of memories, and a lot of new friends from coast to coast.
The Car That Carried Us
A quick word for our gearheads. Our 2022 Subaru WRX GT, bought from CarMax, is an outstanding road car. It was comfortable through 10-hour days, sure-footed in mountain passes, and happy at highway speed for 10,000-plus miles. We added four upgrades, and together they make a fantastic combination:
Swift USA springs for a planted, composed ride without beating us up [we did laps at Dominion Raceway before the segment back to Los Angeles]
A Remark exhaust that sounds great without wearing you out on a long day
Toyo Proxes Sport 2 tires for grip, quiet and confidence in rain, heat and everything in between
Color matched side skirts and rear bumber from Aeroflow Dynamics.
Another huge "Thank You" to Daryl, Alex, and the Just Driven team for their expertise and support in building out our cars.
Bottom line: We love this car!
Don't Skip the Small Museums
America has an astonishing number of history museums, and some of our favorites were the small ones. The big national museums tell the big story. The small-town ones, like the Pendleton Air Museum, the Fort Smith Museum of History, the Devil's Rope Museum, and the Bataan Memorial Military Museum, tell the local stories that often get lost in the big picture.
These are the stories of the hometown pilots, the county's soldiers, and the ranchers and railroaders who built the place. Every one of them was worth the stop. Next time you see a small museum sign on a back road, pull over.
Different Regions, One Country
Here's what 10,198 miles taught us. America is a lot of different places.
On the Pacific coast, it's fog and redwoods. In the Palouse, it's golden wheat. In Montana, it's big sky. On the Plains, it's small towns. In Texas, it's heat and pride. On the Gulf, it's slow, sweet afternoons. In the Lowcountry, it's moss-draped oaks, and in New Mexico, adobe and ancient rock art. The accents changed, the food changed, the license plates and the weather changed.
What didn't change was the welcome. At every VFW and American Legion post, from Crescent City to Santa Fe, someone shook our hands, poured the coffee and asked where we were headed. We found the same flag on the wall and the same pride in the people who have served. And everywhere, we found the same belief that this country, and the democracy at its heart, is worth celebrating and worth protecting. We drove through a dozen different Americas and found one country.
What's Next: The Rally4Vets Road Rally, Starting in 2027
The Grand Tour proved something we'd hoped was true: people love a road trip with a purpose. So beginning in 2027, Rally4Vets will host an annual three-to-four-day road rally to fund our service dog program. It's a chance to drive great roads, see great places, meet great people, and put a trained service dog beside a veteran who needs one.
Whether you want to drive, sponsor, or cheer us on, we'd love to have you along. Watch rally4vets.com for dates and details.
Thank You
To every VFW and American Legion post that opened its doors, every museum volunteer who shared a story, every stranger who waved at a car covered in stars: thank you. You made 10,198.3 miles feel like a homecoming.
Happy 250th, America. Let's keep driving.
Support the mission: donate to the Rally4Vets service dog program. Scan the code below or make a donation directly to our service dog program: https://donorbox.org/2026-service-dog-program
Gallery
All remaining photos from the 2026 America 250 Grand Tour, in date order.
