Houston native does 18,000 miles on just two wheels
Mike Rose at the Continental Divide near Silver City, N.M.
Mike Rose
Mike Rose departs from Phoenix, Ariz., on April 12 for his second cross-country bike ride.
Mike Rose is shown near Hereford, Texas, during his 2012 cross-country bike ride.
Working 80-hour weeks for 22 years took a strong toll on Michael Rose’s body. A longtime runner, he found his body couldn’t handle pounding the pavement anymore, so he decided to take up bicycling.
“I was done, my body was broken. I just really couldn’t do it anymore. That’s why I decided to ride a bicycle, because I had bad ankles, bad knees, bad back, bad wrists, but I could pedal a bike,” Rose said.
Rose retired from his Houston business, Grant Street Lawn & Garden, a few years back and went on a 16,000-mile, 27-state, cross-country bike ride. It was a decision he came to after what he describes as “too many hours behind a lawn mower and time to think about a cool thing to do when I retired.”
The 59-year-old Houston native began his first journey in 2012. He traveled down the East Coast, went along the Gulf Coast, came up the West Coast and then traveled back home through the center of the country. His wife helped him along the way.
“I was supported by my wife in the motor home. I didn’t carry a whole lot of gear. I just did the pedaling, and she would meet me every 80 miles,” Rose said. “We didn’t just bike ride, we made it into a vacation. We rafted on the Colorado, and we spent time at Mardi Gras. … It wasn’t just a bike ride every day.”
On the trip, Rose experienced something he said made his “hair stand on end” and was his craziest moment during his travels. He was stalked by a wolf.
“I was in New Mexico and a wolf came out on the road and followed me for about a quarter of a mile to half a mile. If he wanted me for lunch, he had me. I read a book on wolves after that. It said that sometimes wolves stalk their prey, and they play with them, sometimes they don’t even attack. He’ll follow an animal for sometimes days and then he’ll just let him go,” Rose explained.
For his next ride, Rose decided he wanted to do it alone.
Rose and his wife spent the past winter in Arizona, and on April 12, Rose began his journey back home on two wheels while his wife flew back to Pennsylvania. During the winter months, Rose worked to have money for the bike ride.
“I was a beer vendor for the Chicago Cubs and Oakland Athletics for spring training, and I made enough tip money to support my trip back,” Rose said.
This bike ride was about 2,200 miles, and he biked about 87 miles a day. Since he was unsupported for this trip, Rose carried all the gear himself, and tried to carry as little as possible. He had layers of clothing to account for the varying climates he would be travelling through, but packed very few changes of clothes. He also packed plenty of water and food, especially water.
When it came to his nightly lodging, Rose mainly stayed in motels, which he described as “very inexpensive and accessible” west of the Mississippi. Some nights, though, he would stay with strangers willing to house him for the night, usually finding such homes through the website warmshowers.org.
“There’s a network of people you can contact and they’ll just take you in. In Kansas I had a couple people just pull me over on the side of the road and say ‘Hey, you looking for a place to stay tonight?’ They’d invite me into their house, I spent the night there and when I got up in the morning, they would go (out in the morning), and they’d tell me how to lock the door, and I left,” Rose said.
While the majority of his time was spent in motels, Rose says his best experiences were when he was staying with other people.
“The people were very accommodating. They went out of their way to do extra things like take me out to dinner when they didn’t have to,” Rose said.
After traveling more than 18,000 miles and being through more than 30 states, Rose says it is impossible for him to pick any particular location as his favorite, because every place was unique.
“Riding through the mountains is just totally different than riding across Kansas into a headwind,” Rose said. “My favorite place is usually where I was that day.”
Rose only recently made it back home, and says riding his bike cross-country is one of the most enjoyable things he has done with his life, and he isn’t finished yet.
“I’m not done. I’ll probably do it again,” Rose said. “I don’t plan things out. I just sort of wing it.”
To read more about Rose’s travels and to see the routes he took, visit his blog at http://travelsoframblingroses.blogspot.com/.