Late Monday afternoon, Ralph Casey and Missy Williams settled down for a rest after a long day of traveling. Pulling up their collapsable chairs in the parking lot of the in Fairfax City, the two relaxed in the shade next to a bright yellow covered wagon, emblazoned with the words, "Going to DC to get answers for the small businessman." Nearby, two Exmoor ponies grazed in a section of grass parallel to the cars that slowly streamed down Lee Highway during rush hour.

Casey and Williams have traveled all the way from Georgia to Virginia in their quest to "get answers" from lawmakers about what they say is too much regulation on small businesses. On Monday the two drew stares and curious looks from locals as they took their wagon down Route 29, which goes through Manassas and Centreville, and eventually into Fairfax. For Casey, a farrier (a specialist in horse hoof-care) and the owner of a horse-shoeing school in Lafayette, Ga., that's the whole point. He's traveled from Georgia to Virginia to get answers from lawmakers, hoping that the bizarre nature of the trip will help him get access. But equally important to Casey is the message he wants to send to his fellow citizens: if elected officials won't listen to their constituents, whether they are Republicans or Democrats, voters need to throw the bums out.

"I listen to what everyday people are saying," Casey said, clad in blue jeans with suspenders, cowboy boots and a straw hat. "These people that I talk to are not multimillion dollar businessmen, they're everyday people. I took all the people that I talked to for the last year and I sat down and I compiled five simple questions that I would like to ask. And you can't put a spin on them. And they're pertaining to small business." "If nobody answers any questions or comes out, doesn't that show the American people that they're not interested in the small business guy?"

He won't say what the questions are, because he doesn't want legislators to arrive with prepared answers. But he will say that he is concerned about too much regulation on small businesses and veterans affairs. And getting answers to those questions are worth weeks of sleeping in the cramped wagon and cooking over a small portable Coleman stove. Asked if he's ever done anything of this nature before, Casey, 69, started to laugh. "Are you kidding me? This is the craziest thing I've ever done." (A note on his Facebook page, however, mentions a six-month long trip from Georgia to Arizona in 1989).

There have been a number of acts of kindness along the way. A businessman in Fairfax City gave him several $20 bills, while another local woman drove to get ten gallons of water for the horses. After a driver texting rear-ended his wagon early in the trip, a man worked all day to get his wagon back in tip-top shape, he said. The chief of police in one Georgia town "pulled me over and I thought uh-oh, I done something wrong," said Casey. "He brought out about 200 pounds of groceries!"

Tomorrow Casey and Williams—who completed Casey's horse-shoeing school about ten years ago and now works as a farrier—will head down Route One together with Casey's dog, Blue. They'll arrive in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, just after rush hour. Once they get there, Casey has a friend in the city who can help graze the horses. He hopes to give the horses, an extremely rare breed, to Sasha and Malia Obama as a present. The point isn't to try and bribe President Obama, he said: he just thinks that all children can benefit from contact with horses. From D.C. he'll drive back to Georgia with Williams and his son.