This Stroke Survivor Cycled Across the Country All by Herself
Hometown: Panama City, Florida
Time Cycling: 9 years
Age: 58
Occupation: Cycling housewife
Reason for cycling: To encourage more women and girls to be physically active on bike. To show people that just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you don’t have the ability.
I’m not really athletic. I kept saying, “I’m not riding that bike, it’s too pretty, it’ll get dirty.” But my husband, who has been trying to get me to ride since 1985, got me into riding in about 2011.
Around that time, we also gave up our car, so were biking everywhere—to date nights (before COVID), the grocery store, and any other errands we had to run.
But on December 22, 2013, I had a stroke.
That day, my husband and I rode 63 miles from St. Petersburg, Florida, to Tampa. On the way back, I started slowing down, so he went ahead of me. When I got back, we both took showers and went to bed. He heard me making noises in the middle of the night—he’s a nurse so he recognized that I was having a stroke. I was rushed to the hospital and stayed there for about a week.
When I got out of the hospital, getting back on the bike was my physical therapy, and the third day I was home, I went for a ride. I was a little wobbly, but I could manage. A few days later, the neighbor called my husband and said, “I think I just saw your wife on her bike, didn’t she just have a stroke?”
After my stroke, I got more serious about cycling for my health. I had just started to eat a vegan diet; eating healthier and riding saved my life, but I knew I could do better.
When I first got into cycling in 2011, I was friends with the local bike shop owners, and I said, “No way am I paying that much for a bike when I can get a Louis Vuitton [bag for the same amount of money].”
No way am I giving up my Louis! But now, I’m trying to encourage more women to give up their valuable bags. Yes, it makes them look and feel good technically, and I love my bags too, but no matter how good it makes you look, it won’t make you healthy.
Now, I celebrate my health three times a year—on my birthday, on the anniversary of my stroke, and in May, which is National Stroke Awareness Month—with a long ride. I do some type of challenge, maybe riding to a faraway destination or riding 100 miles.
And on one of those rides in 2018, I got the idea to ride across the country. I thought, If I can ride 100 miles, I can go across the country. I wanted to ride cross-country unsupported to try and inspire others.
I started riding every day to prepare, but I didn’t know what I was getting into. I had one pack, and when I left my husband had packed it so full of food and supplies, it was heavy. I didn’t even realize that I needed to change gears going up the mountains. But I learned as I went. And, I learned you have to use a paper map—you can’t always trust Siri to know when roads are closed or if you’re on a service road.
The people I met through my ride were amazing. My husband and some friends rode with me on my first day to see me off, but for the most part I was on my own. stayed in hotels that people helped put me up in, and I also stayed with people along the way. I even met and stayed with pro cyclist Kathryn Bertine.
I rode about 135 miles a day, for six to eight hours a day. The whole trip from Panama City, Florida, to Los Angeles, took about 45 days. I would’ve finished sooner, but I got sick and stayed in San Antonio, Texas, for two weeks.
In Mississippi, a group of guys stopped me and said “We’ve never seen a Black woman on a bicycle before, we’re used to seeing them on TV, and they’re white.” And I just told them I was riding cross-country for my birthday. I also met up with people along the way who said people don’t usually go from the East to West Coast, most go the other way. But, I said “I’m not most people.”
In 2019, I set out to ride from Seattle to Florida, but I ended up riding from Seattle to San Diego due to fires and rain cutting my ride short.
Listen, I went through all of the complaining in the beginning. rode around the block and I complained, then I rode five miles and complained. But eventually I stopped complaining and now there’s no way I’m giving this up. If you are starting to bike, you will eventually feel the same way. I did this trip to hopefully change women’s minds or the way they think.
Coming from me, I’m not a professional. I’m just trying to get people, especially women, to see that I too am a regular woman. If I can ride cross-country, you can get on a bike.
I also have a nonprofit called Heels on Wheelz, to raise stroke awareness and encourage a healthy lifestyle through cycling. I also work with Girls Inc. and the Boys and Girls Club. My goal is to help more young kids, especially young girls, get on bikes.
You can follow Patricia’s journey here.
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