Dear Friend,

​Heidi Across America is three months old!

I’m having a great time on the Heidi Across America slow-travel, bike-book tour. It’s full immersion in living slow-travel philosophy, which is wonder-full and also uncomfortable and challenging. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be out for an extended time, launching my debut memoir, learning how people orient to my story and slow travel, receiving, and being in a new transformative period.

By way of quick recap, I’ve enjoyed in-person events at the following bookstores:

• ​Village Books, Bellingham, WA

• ​Powell’s Books, Portland, OR

• ​Grass Roots Books, Corvallis, OR

• ​Valley Bookstore, Jackson, WY

• ​Barnes & Noble, Cheyenne, WY

• ​The Bookworm, Omaha, NE

• ​Your Forte, Atlantic, IA

Thank you also to the University of Oregon Bike Program in Eugene, OR, Jaime Sullivan and the Public Lands Transportation Fellows Program, Rebecca Gleason in Bozeman, MT, Wealth Partners in Omaha, NE, and Ann Wylie, Sean Kelley and Billie’s Grocery in Kansas City, MO, for hosting events.

Slow travel – the philosophy

​As I’ve considered what the future of travel looks like and imagined how that travel future is broadly inclusive, I’ve landed on three principles. Slow travel could be one, two, or all three of these principles, and I encourage you to make slow travel your own.

• Micro-travel and mindfulness – You don’t have to have a lot of money or time to have transformative travel experiences. Slow travel could be as simple and close to home as going outside to experience the weather on your skin or walking the neighborhood. What is important about this travel is that you be present, pay attention to what you notice, and focus on your sensory experience.

• Journey is the destination – Sometimes how you get somewhere is more important than where you’re going, if you even have a destination. My ride across the country was this kind of journey and created my transformation more than my experience once I arrived in Washington, DC.

• Live somewhere else – Sometimes your destination is more important than how you get there because you want to spend as much time as possible soaking in a place’s culture, language, and environment. For destination-based slow travel, build in white space and do as the locals do. Make loose plans, minimal plans, and/or no plans. Be spontaneous. Ask locals for recommendations.

Upcoming

Be part of the tour

I encourage you to request Heidi Across America from your local bookstore or local library. If you participate in a local book club, writing group, cycling/walking club, women’s group, or community group and would like to discuss Heidi Across America, slow travel, or writing and publication, please be in touch. I’d love to do an in-person or virtual event. To hear what others are saying about Heidi Across America or to sample some of the topics and conversation around this book, visit my media page to sample interviews and articles.

Highlights from my journey so far

• Seeing my name on the marquee and my book on the shelves at Powell’s Books in Portland, OR, interviewing Mike Steen, and presenting to a full house at Grass Roots Books in Corvallis, OR.

• Reconnecting with friend and fellow slow traveler, Rebecca Gleason, in Bozeman, MT. She and her husband Steve hosted a Heidi Across America party at their house then drove me to Jackson, WY, in their camper van where were encountered the freshly collapsed road and detoured around it. When it was time to leave Jackson after my Valley Bookstore event, they drove me up Togwotee Pass in an impressive rain/hail storm.

• Meeting the Nevada Poet Laureate, Shaun Griffin, in Dubois, WY, and stepping out of my comfort zone to visit the gun shop at the motel where I was staying. My conversation with Scott, who owned both the motel and gun shop, proved to me that America is alive in the hearts of people everywhere.

• Seeing my first moose at Muffy and Al’s place outside Tie Siding, WY, hearing about the experience of being a liberal in a conservative state, and enjoying the closeness of the literary world by sharing a delightful Sunday afternoon with Tasha Alexander.

• Reconnecting with old friends and making new ones during my journey through Wyoming and stays in Cheyenne, WY, Wellington, CO, Ft. Collins, CO, Boulder, CO, and Denver, CO. I watched an intense storm in Cheyenne with Cara Chambers and family. The extra travel on my map in Colorado is where friends provided car rides, I rode buses, and I pedaled as part of these meetings and connections. I learned a lot about engaging with local bookstores and did recon for a return visit.

• Enjoying my partnership with Barney who’s an extrovert and rendezvoused with me in the Denver area. Together, we: met Cuban immigrants in Nebraska, made great connections with the staff at Omaha’s Hotel Indigo, and talked to a retired truck driver during a town bike ride in Omaha.

• Celebrating a successful turnout (with family, friends, and colleagues) at The Bookworm Omaha that demonstrated Heidi Across America is much more than a niche book about biking.

• Experiencing RAGBRAI, my first time at this event and in Iowa. I loved the inclusivity of – body types, biking style, ages. With something like 20,000 people, RAGBRAI wasn’t my introvert cup of tea, but the event’s loose structure allows people to make it their own, and I appreciate that.

Thank you to my sponsors Terry Bicycles, CLEAN.FIT box, Adventure Cycling Association, my publisher HCI Books, my publicist PR by the Book, and the many people and organizations who have been part of my tour in small and big ways! I am grateful to each of you.

I plan to return to:

• Eugene, OR

• Missoula, MT

• Bozeman, MT

• Ft. Collins, CO

• Boulder, CO

• Denver, CO

I loved the opportunity to connect with friends in these locations, meet new friends, and get a better feel for the opportunity to engage people around slow travel.

Writing and slow travel experiences

• ​The Atheneum - Portland, Oregon's best alternative to the MFA. Applications due July 31

• ​Pedal and Prosody - Join bicyclist-writer-publisher, Carolyne Whelan, to restore yourself with fellow rider-writers of all styles, experience, and ability levels in the Montana mountains. Limited spots left. August 30-September 3, 2024

• ​Come to Your Senses - Awaken yourself and your writing for a week in the south of France with Karen Karbo. Reserve your spot now for 2025. Visiting writers include: Cheryl Strayed, Brian Benson, Ann Hood, Chelsea Cain, and Jeanne McCulloch.

• ​The Narrative Project - a year-long, tele-live program to help you get your book done and includes guaranteed publication in an anthology of your peers. New cohort begins in September. Other courses and resources available.

• ​Sara Connell - Thought Leader Rising, October 1-3, 2024 in Chicago, IL. Build your audience, book speaking gigs, monetize your mission, get your book out (there).

• ​Corporeal Writing - writing workshops and other creative labs. In-person, online, short, long, sliding scale. There's something for everyone.

• ​(Re)writing Masculinity - An online memoir workshop taught by Brian Benson and geared toward male-identified writers interested in telling better, deeper, more curious stories about your life and experience of masculinity. Applications due October 27, 2024.

Stay in touch​
If you’re on social media, please follow me on Instagram (@heidibeierle) and join The Wonder of Slow Travel Facebook group to catch updates on my tour and be in conversation with other slow travelers and slow travel fans.

Much gratitude and love,
Heidi