by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
David Wray is riding his BMX bike across the United States and writing a book about it.
"I've got the introduction written," Wray said. "It's kind of hard to be experiencing everything and still find the time and focus to take notes. I'm definitely going to tie in a lot of other angles, like spirituality, politics, art, freedom."
Wray left Monterey, Calif., in June and arrived in Albuquerque mid-September with a 130-pound trailer strapped to his bike. He's staying at the Albuquerque Bicycle Park BMX track, where he bathes in the janitor's closet and helps maintain the track and supervise bike races.
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Before he started the trip, he was a calibration technician, using skills he learned in the Navy, working in California and living in Portland, Ore. He said the job was trying his integrity.
Then he lost his job, his house and his fiancée - all in one fell swoop.
Facing credit problems, he took his car to the Monterey, Calif., coast on June 6, and he tried to blow out the engine.
That didn't work, so he left the car there with a note on the steering wheel that read, "This car belongs to the Navy Deferral Credit Union." Then he got on his bike and left town.
"I've just had it," he said. "I've had it. I've had enough of expectations. I've had enough of manipulations, whatever angle that comes from - whether it be family or relationships or job or just everything that had weighted me down and kept me from doing things that I really wanted to do. I'm going to live this adventure and see what happens."
Wray began BMX racing at 12 and got well-known after winning some big races, he said.
He rode through Death Valley for three days in 120-degree weather, he said. He can't go faster than eight miles per hour, because it's a single-speed bike hauling a 130-pound trailer. He went through Las Vegas and Colorado and ended up in Albuquerque via Taos and Santa Fe.
Wray said he has been resting in Albuquerque while his broken shoulder heals, but he's fine with that because he's not racing against a deadline.
"I am planning on ending up in Maine," Wray said. "That's the one state that I've never been to. From here, I'm going to keep heading south. I've never been to Roswell. From there, go through Dallas, Austin, Houston and then New Orleans. And from there, I'm going to go through Mississippi."
In Mississippi, he said he wants to see the crossroads from the legendary story of Robert Johnson, the grandfather of delta blues.
"I've recently learned it's actually a railroad crossing, but in the legend it's told as a dirt road crossing," he said. "He's there at midnight, and he's got a guitar on his back. And he's not sure what he's going to do with his life."
Then, Robert Johnson meets the devil.
"And the devil's like, 'If you make this deal with me, I'll give you this guitar sound and that'll be your signature on history,'" Wray said. "So I want to go to that spot and then, from there, see what happens. Maybe I'm due for a deal -- and I'll make one."
