In the summer of 1909, the Abernathy brothers set off alone on horseback, riding from their Cross Roads Ranch in Tillman County to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and back. Louie (Bud) was nine years old, and Temple was only five. On April 5, 1910, with Bud and Temple astride their horses, Sam Bass and Geronimo, the boys traveled east for two months to meet their friend, former President Theodore Roosevelt, as he returned to New York City from an African safari. Along the way, the brothers fell in love with automobiles, bought a Brush Runabout in New York, and drove themselves home in just twenty-three days. When Temple was seven and Bud was eleven, they were challenged to ride from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific in sixty days for a $10,000 prize. Leaving Coney Island on August 11, 1911, they covered 3,619 miles and arrived at the Pacific just two days late. Although they did not win the prize, they set a record for the fastest cross-country ride on horseback, and this record has never been broken. The Abernathys made their last long-distance ride in June 1913, driving a custom designed, two-seat, twin-engine Indian motorcycle from the Cross Roads Ranch to New York City, then returning to Oklahoma by train. Temple grew up to be an oilman, and Bud became a lawyer. Both settled and raised families in north Texas, but their greatest adventures began and ended in Tillman County.