SANTA CRUZ >> Most cross-country cyclists haul 80 pounds on their bike, including the frame, food and equipment.

Mike Minnick’s bike haul weighs close to 300 pounds, including his 50-pound dog, Bixby.

For more than 18 months, Minnick and his dog have traveled by bike across country to promote local animal shelters in each city, drawing local media to write a story about him and highlight the animal shelter in the process.

“I set out to change my life and this is how I’m doing it,” said Minnick, 38, a Texas native. “The opportunities that are coming my way and continue to come my way would’ve only happened after I did something drastic.”

Santa Cruz County’s animal shelter was no different, with the duo paying a visit to the dozens of cats and dogs there.

The duo recently arrived in Santa Cruz after a two-week trip from Washington.

They came into Santa Cruz with a roar as the bike’s brakes went out during downhill mountain descent. After getting to flat ground, the two stumbled onto Dave’s Custom Bikes on Soquel Avenue where a mechanic offered a free brake fix and a place to sleep.

Throughout the years traveling on bike, Minnick found the best in people who offered him lawns, backyards, couches and beds to sleep on after a brief conversation with him.

The days where he doesn’t meet someone who offers him a bed, Minnick found campsites to set up a tent and roll out his sleeping bag. He showers often because he knows smelling bad isn’t socially appealing though he said there are long stretches of rides when he doesn’t shower for days.

Bixby, a 5-year-old border collie mix, is content to go along for the bike ride. During the rides, Bixby sits in a large, padded dog crate mounted on the back of the bike. Sometimes she sits and watches the scenery pass but most often, she sleeps, Minnick said.

“She’ll just lay down and I’ll look back there and she’s completely asleep,” he said, adding that passing diesel trucks couldn’t wake her.

Before his freewheeling life as a bicyclist promoting animal shelters, Minnick mostly worked as a bartender or bar manager and chain smoked constantly. But after a conversation with two bicyclists doing their own cross country trip, Minnick decided to try it himself and planned a trip from Maine to Florida.

Slated to be a one-way journey, everything changed when the two stopped by the animal shelter in Key Largo, Florida. The shelter was in shambles and struggling to stay open in what Minnick described as an affluent neighborhood.

So he took action and began to stop by animal shelters in each major city.

“It’s over the course of what I thought was an impossible dream that I’m realizing the impact that I could have on these animal shelters,” he said.

Thus began the trek that would take the pair from the most southern state to the West Coast, covering more than 8,000 miles and visiting at least 100 animal shelters along the way. Minnick started a website for the two — www.wheresbixby.com — to tell people about the journey and even started several social media accounts.

The two have steadily gained thousands of followers and supporters over the years and even sponsors. The company that built the cargo bike the two ride, a Yuba Mundo, began sponsoring the two with equipment and some maintenance.

“We get so much attention that I know we’re on the verge of something really cool,” he said.