POST FALLS -- Two large steel beams from the World Trade Center are in North Idaho, on their way to Silverdale to become part of a 9/11 memorial. The beams drive people to tears but it’s the American flag draped over the beams that has people calling foul.

Nearly a decade has passed since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and two steel beams that were once part of the Twin Towers are making their way across the country. Donna and Lee Summers are driving the beams from New York to Silverdale, Washington where they’ll become part of a 9/11 memorial.

Everywhere they stop along their journey they’ve drawn a crowd.

“Rich, old, poor, black, white, Spanish, Asian; everybody came they just poured out of the wood work,” Lee Summers said.

Their latest stop on their journey is Cruiser’s at State Line.

“People have been thanking us, everywhere we go, for us bringing it through. Of course all we're doing is transporting it,” Lee said.

But not everyone is happy about what they’re seeing. Cruiser’s owner Sheri Herberholz has received threatening calls and e-mails about the beams being draped by the American flag. So has bucktruck.org, the behind the project.

Critics say that draping the American flag over the beams is in violation of flag etiquette. The National Flag Foundation says it should not be used as a covering for a monument, statue, or car.

The situation has gotten so bad the owners of Cruiser’s have called the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office to report the harassment and local members of the Patriot Guard are recruiting volunteers to watch over the beams.

"We look at those steel beams as actually caskets for some people. There may be the remains of victims on those very beams we have on that truck," Larry Griffith with the Washington State Patriot Guard said.

Dozens of local Patriot Guard riders plan on accompanying the World Trade Center beams to their final resting place on Sunday as a way to honor those who lost their lives.

“Those people are heroes as much as anybody else who has given their life for our country and we honor those heroes appropriately by wrapping them in the colors of the United States of America," Griffith said.

The beams will be in the Post Falls Area until early Sunday morning. They’ll be at Cruiser’s on Thursday, at Lone Wolf Harley Davidson on Appleway in Coeur d'Alene from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and at the Hot Rod Café in Post Falls from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.

The beams, escorted by the Patriot Guard, will leave from the Outlet Mall in Post Falls at 7 a.m. on Sunday and arrive in Silverdale around 5 p.m.