Mount St. Mary’s VP closes out cross-country bike trip

BRUNSWICK, Md. (AP) — Kraig Sheetz doesn’t remember exactly where he was when he met the old man. Somewhere in Nebraska, he guesses, or maybe Kansas.

Regardless, it was hot, and Sheetz was tired. He’d stopped his bike in front of a convenience store and was on his way to buy a Gatorade when a grizzled, callus-handed man — Sheetz estimates he was in his 90s — shut off his truck and struck up a conversation.

When it was over, the man held out a small, round buckeye seed.

“He said, ‘This will bring you good luck. Keep this with you for your journey,’” Sheetz recalled. “So I tucked it into my bike jersey, and I’ve rode with it every day since.”

Last Sunday, after eight weeks, 14 states and 3,800 miles, Sheetz — the vice president of Mount St. Mary’s University — completed his decades-long dream of cycling from coast to coast. He grinned widely, eyes shining, on the eve of his final ride.

He’d decided his takeaway was simple. It was a lesson taught to him over and over again as he wove his way across the country — by the buckeye man and so many others.

“This world has wonderful people,” Sheetz said.

Dozens of colleagues, friends and family members gathered at Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick — just a few blocks off Sheetz’s route along the C&O canal — for a party last Saturday evening, the penultimate day of his journey. Bluegrass music floated into the streets as patrons sipped a beer brewed especially for the occasion.

The next morning, Sheetz would rise, hop back on his bike, and ride the final 55 miles.

The “Tour de Sheetz” raised more than $60,000 for the expansion and renovation of the Mount’s School of Natural Science and Mathematics, built in 1964. The school’s new dean, Christine McCauslin, said the...