Ankeny brothers Ross and Seth Naylor are steeling themselves for the motorcycle ride of their lives.

The 20,000-mile journey will take them south of the border — through the mountains of Central America to remote outposts of the Amazon — before reaching the end of the road in Tierra del Fuego.

They leave Wednesday, and will be on the road for six months until they reach South America's southernmost tip.

Along the way, they'll live a minimalist lifestyle, carrying everything they need — clothes, tools, camping gear — on their specially modified bikes.

Adventurous by nature, the brothers hope this latest stunt will serve a larger purpose than keeping their mother up nights: They are trying to raise $40,000 for the World Riders Foundation, a nonprofit that supports orphanages globally.

Mike Haley, another Ankeny guy, created the charity after chucking the corporate world and riding his motorcycle to Ushuaia, Argentina, several years ago. A five-day stop at a Mexican orphanage on that trip sparked the idea.

The Naylor brothers will ride a pair of Honda XR 650 L motorcycles that they've outfitted with extra large gas tanks to get them through remote dead zones and overstuffed seats to get their bums through the long hours of rough riding.

For at least part of the ride, they'll follow the Pan-American Highway — a network of roads that stretches from Alaska to the southern tip of South America.

They plan to ride south through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica before reaching the Darien Gap — a 100-mile-long strip of undeveloped Panama swampland.

There, they will have to find someone to sail them south to Colombia, where the road picks back up.

The Naylors are mostly playing it by ear, without a strict daily schedule. And the brothers wouldn't have it any other way.

“We’d like to think we’re setting an example — that life doesn’t have to be what other people hand you,” Ross Naylor said. “You can dream up whatever you want, as long as you’re willing to chase after it.”

Ross, 27, is two years older than his little brother, Seth. Both graduated from Ankeny High School.

After earning college degrees, they spent 2015 traveling across Australia. They made money doing odd jobs for people they found on a website similar to Craigslist.

They spent another two months traveling in Southeast Asia, including a motorcycle trip through Vietnam.

Their wanderlust sated for a short time, they returned to Iowa, where they started Renomads, a home construction and renovation company. They live together in a camper emblazoned with the company's name and go where the work takes them.

“All of our friends ... jumped into Wells Fargo and the corporate world,” Seth said. “There’s that social push to that kind of thing, and neither Ross or I wanted to jump in with everyone else."

They have been planning their South America ride for a while. They're paying for it on their own, but they wanted to get a charity involved. So they partnered with the World Riders Foundation about two months ago.

“We’d like to think we’re setting an example — that you don’t need a lot when you come from a privileged place like this, and you can do a lot when you put your mind to it,” Ross said.

How to donate

To follow the Naylor brothers on their ride and to donate to World Riders Foundation, visit WorldRidersFoundation.org.

Checks can be made out to World Riders Foundation and sent to 713 N.W. Westwood St., Ankeny, IA 50023.