Washington From Vice President Dick Cheney to Strom Thurmond's last crop of young staffers, in luxury planes and in Jeeps, mourners are trekking to Columbia today for Strom Thurmond's funeral.

Most members of Congress will not attend, but many of those who worked for Thurmond say nothing could have kept them away.

"This is a family," said Bill Tuten, a Blythewood native who used to work for Thurmond and now works for Thurmond's successor, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. "The patriarch of the family is gone. No matter what you have to do, you come down."

Tuten, his fiancee and two other former Thurmond staffers are making the eight-hour road trip from Washington to Columbia in a Jeep Cherokee. They hit much traffic and rain Tuesday.

Others will travel to the funeral without as much trouble.

Cheney, who will speak at the funeral from behind bulletproof glass, will fly from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Air Force Two, a smaller version of the president's Air Force One. Tucker Eskew, the South Carolinian who heads the White House Office of Global Communications, will hitch a ride.

Another official plane, also with "United States of America" emblazoned on its skin, will carry former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas; former Thurmond top aide Duke Short; and about six other members and former members of Congress.

Other politicians will fly separately from their home states, where most have gone for Congress' one-week July 4 recess.

Other than Tuten's, at least five other carpools headed south from Washington, with more making the trip on their own. Most left work early on Monday, and will drive back tonight in time to catch only a few hours of sleep before returning to work on Wednesday.

Despite the somber mood of the road trip, staffers -- more than 30 who once worked for Thurmond -- planned to enjoy an impromptu reunion in Five Points Tuesday night.

The idea is to catch up and trade Thurmond stories.

"I was 21 years old when I started working for Senator Thurmond," said Rebecca Fleming, Thurmond's last press secretary, who is making the trip from her new home in Lancaster. "Now I'm 27. I did a lot of growing up in that office.

"That whole staff -- for six years they felt like family. Often times I saw them more than I saw my own family."

A few former staffers who wanted to be at the funeral won't make it. Some could not take much time off, and said they checked the airlines last Friday and found that round-trip airfare from Washington to Columbia would cost a prohibitive $1,800.

Most of Thurmond's former Senate colleagues won't be in the pews either. Several already had scheduled family events for the recess. Others, including U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Thurmond's long-time colleague on the Judiciary Committee, cited unavoidable scheduling conflicts. Nine senators are in Iraq on a study mission.

Of the eight members of South Carolina's congressional delegation, only U.S. Reps. John Spratt and Jim Clyburn, both Democrats, will not attend.

Spratt, of York, left for England Friday. He is attending a reunion at Oxford University, where he received a master's degree in 1966, his spokesman Chuck Fant said.

Clyburn is in London on a trip scheduled months ago, spokeswoman Hope Derrick said.