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CRAWFORD, Texas - After a 26-day vigil that ignited the antiwar movement, Cindy Sheehan took her protest on the road Wednesday, while a handful of protesters said they would continue camping off the road leading to President Bush's ranch until the war in Iraq ends.
Rather than heading home to California, the mother of a 24-year-old soldier who died in Iraq boarded one a bus heading out on tour to continue her protest.
"This is where I'm going to spend every August from now on," Sheehan said as she smiled and waved through a bus window.
The group plans to stop in 25 states during the next three weeks, then take Sheehan's "Bring Them Home Now Tour" to the nation's capital for a Sept. 24 antiwar march.
Sheehan had said she would stay in Crawford until Bush's monthlong vacation ended or until she could question him about the war that claimed the life of her son Casey. She missed a week of the protest because of her mother's stroke.
"We're going to keep on questioning him, and we're going to keep on until our troops are brought home because there's no noble cause," she said.
While two top Bush administration officials talked to Sheehan the first day, the president never did during her Crawford stay - although he said that he sympathizes with her. His vacation ended Wednesday.
While dozens of protesters packed tents and antiwar banners Wednesday, a few tents remained so at least two Veterans for Peace members can keep camping there until the war ends, said Carl Rising-Moore of Indianapolis.
Sheehan's first stop on the bus tour was a Wednesday night rally in Austin, where protesters chanted and waved antiwar signs. Dozens of Bush supporters held a counter rally nearby.
Also Wednesday, at a pro-Bush camp across the street from Sheehan's site, about a dozen people began taking down their tents, canopies and signs and putting away cases of water and food.
Presidential adviser Karl Rove stopped by the site Tuesday night, and he hugged and thanked the Bush supporters, said Valerie Duty, who helped expand the camp two weeks ago.
"I love the troops and I love President Bush, and I support his decision on the war all the way - 100 percent," said Mary Hitt of Valley Mills, Texas.