Brad Hauter, aka "Yard-Man," has been driving a lawn mower across the United States, cleaning up communities and raising money to help beautify America.

´Yard-Man´ ends mowing trek across U.S.
Thursday, June 5, 2003 Posted: 1907 GMT ( 3:07 AM HKT)

"Yard-Man" Brad Hauter on his lawn mower, with CNN´s Daryn Kagan and Jack Cafferty in New York
————————————————–
Story Tools

RELATED

´Yard-Man´ mows over his own record
´Yard-Man´s´ Web site

NEW YORK (CNN) — Brad Hauter, aka "Yard-Man," has been driving a lawn mower across the United States, cleaning up communities and raising money to help beautify America.

His 5,500-mile journey, sponsored by a lawn mower manufacturer, began March 19 in San Francisco, California, and ended Thursday in New York.

CNN anchors Daryn Kagan and Jack Cafferty spoke with Hauter outside the "American Morning" studios Thursday in New York.

KAGAN: Congratulations.

HAUTER: Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here.

KAGAN: What´s been the hardest part of this gig?

HAUTER: I´ll tell you what — the weather on the East Coast in the last couple of weeks has been tough. It´s been in the 50s and rainy, and there´s been flooding so that´s made it a little bit difficult.

KAGAN: You´re not just driving it. You are mowing lawns.

HAUTER: Yes, I think we´ve cut about 40 lawns so far, and one of the things that we´re doing — on our Web site, Yardman.com — you´ll notice our route. It shows the different cities we go to. We´ve cleaned up parks and community centers and planted flowers and trees and done some projects with Keep America Beautiful and their local affiliates.

Also we went through Arkansas and Tennessee at the same time the tornadoes hit, so we did some impromptu cleanups.

CAFFERTY: What kind of mileage does this [lawn mower] get?

HAUTER: You´re not going to believe this. It´s about 25 to 30 miles to the gallon. So it´s better than probably 90 percent of the cars on the street.

CAFFERTY: And you pull into a gas station rest stop and say fill it up?

HAUTER: We have a big support vehicle like a NASCAR trailer, and there is a little fuel cell in there.

CAFFERTY: What´s the worst thing that happened to you along the way?

HAUTER: The saddest thing — I saw a dog get hit, and people left it.

CAFFERTY: You got robbed in Texas, right?

HAUTER: Yeah, I guess that would be a bad thing, too. Our whole truck and trailer was stolen on Easter Sunday. We found the truck and trailer dumped about 50 miles away from the hotel later that day, but all of the Yard-Man mowers, the T-shirts we sell for Keep America Beautiful and pictures of my kids were taken.

KAGAN: This was the second time that you´ve done this?

HAUTER: Can you believe it?

KAGAN: What does your wife think? First of all, do you mow your lawn at home?

HAUTER: Yes, I do. Except for this past couple of months, my neighbor has done it. My wife is a wonderful woman, and she´s really supportive. She´s from Denmark, where they have such efficient recycling programs and the country is so well taken care of, that this is a passion for her as well.

KAGAN: What do you do after this is over?

HAUTER: I slide back into anonymity and start coaching soccer camps again.

KAGAN: Maybe you can stop by the Cafferty home and mow one more lawn?

HAUTER: Could I get keys to the house because I´m going to need lunch, too.

>>