Trio sees the USA in world record time

Three men traversed the contiguous 48 states in 97 hours and 7 minutes: a time good enough to break the Guinness World Record.

Their journey, which began Tuesday at Lookout Pass, ended Saturday in Vermont.

“It’s an event where 100,000 things can go wrong. The Lord was good, we got here,” said Jay Lowe, of Texas. Lowe, his son-in-law Andrew Shull, of Texas, and Ted Jacobs, of Tennessee, comprised the team.

They encountered highway construction in Minneapolis that delayed them for 90 minutes. They thought the construction would destroy their chance of breaking the record Lowe set with a different team of 104 hours, 57 minutes, in 1999. Lowe’s Guinness time of 118 hours, 15 minutes was set in 1994.

Their gas station breaks averaged 3 1/2 minutes, and the men did not eat from Mobile, Ala., to Vermont to make the record. They completed the trip without a single speeding ticket and abided by all Guinness World Record stipulations, Lowe said.

“The biggest relief is having the record. If you don’t have the record, it’s all for naught,” he said.