Lodi teacher Greg Wright completes bike trek across U.S., reaches fundraising goal

Jul. 1—Lodi High School geography teacher Greg Wright finished his bicycle trek across the country Thursday.

Unfortunately, the tour of America ended about 225 miles short of his destination.

"Back in Kansas I was really struggling," he said. "I was on the verge of quitting, and I was just having a tough time. There would be two days left to go to the end, and that was one of the mental factors that kept me going."

While contemplating a decision to quit, Wright said Lodi residents Doug and Bobbi Ford somehow found him out in Kansas, and his friend Chris Swartwood gave him a call.

He said the Fords and Swartwood told him that he could quit if he wanted to, but asked how he'd really feel about stopping. They eventually coaxed him into cycling to the East Coast.

But instead of reaching Boston, Wright said decided to end the journey in New York City, where his sister-in-law lives.

He'll still head to Boston, albeit he'll be driving with his friend Lou Ellis, who followed Wright for the majority of the journey in his car.

They'll meet with Wright's wife and son on Sunday, then head home next week after visiting Niagara Falls.

Wright and Ellis will drive back, and his wife and son will fly home. The bicycles are currently being shipped back to Lodi, Wright said.

Things took a turn for the worse on the third day of the trek, Wright said, while he was outside Austin, Nev., in the very center of the Silver State.

It was there he was pummeled with hail during a storm, became drenched, and developed saddle sores, he said.

"There were lightning strikes, and I was going to climb down into this culvert to wait it out when a woman drove up and yelled that I needed to get out of this storm," he said. "So we put the bike in the back of her truck and she took me a couple miles down the road."

Then, when he got into Kansas a few days later, he said he was hit by headwinds, which were the most difficult obstacle of the ride.

"Every day they were hitting me," he said. "I knew there were going to be hills, but the winds were just either in your face or creating a cross wind. I was knocked off the bike at one point."

His time in Kansas was particularly hard because Ellis made his scheduled stop to attend a wedding. Wright was on his own for three days, and said the feeling of isolation didn't help matters, either.

"Kansas is basically rolling hills," he said. "It's just hill after another hill, and when you're putting up with those winds, you're not sure if you should really be doing this."

He fell two days behind schedule while in Kansas, but he was able to get himself together, he said, and made a goal of reaching New York and returning to square one.

Despite not reaching Boston, Wright was able to exceed his fundraising goal of $10,000 for the Lodi High track team and Got Kids by $800.

Wright calculated that he pedaled about 100 miles a day for a total of 2,705 miles, all over the course of 27 days.

He said he doesn't think he'll embark on another cross-country bicycle trek again.

"When I did this back in 1986, we took our time to see things and talk to people," he said. "We out there for 73 days. Here, I was on a very strict schedule, and it was just a month to get back here. It was still good."