Heidi Across America

This last week I finished up Heidi Across America: One Woman's Journey on a Bicycle Through the Heartland on loan from the Duluth library.  I love the Minnesota library system and the interlibrary loan setup. I've rarely found a book I can't get via the system, and I've looked for some fairly esoteric reads in my history.

Heidi Across America wasn't quite what I was expecting.  Usually these narratives involve a transam ride with minimal sleep, mental breakdowns, and as fast from coast to coast as possible.  Heidi was more of a semi-casual approach, not driven by a race or by participation in a larger group.  It reminded me a bit of a chef my family met at a lodge outside Yellowstone who had spent a year of his life circumnavigating the US on bicycle.  His son was on speed dial and took care of emergencies.  Heidi had the same setup with her mother, who was in charge of research when necessary, and shipping supplies.  For those of you who didn't ride in the pre-smartphone [not pre-cellphone] / Google / Maps era, the absolute necessity of someone who could troubleshoot in an emergency is probably lost.  I clearly remember cycling trails where having someone who could reroute me if a town was closed up for food and lodging was important.

If I ever meet Heidi, based on her book, she'll give me a frown for saying this, but she did not bike across country.  She did go across America.  I have deep sympathy for why she bailed for a while in Missouri.  Number one being it's Missouri.  Number two is that it was the heat that took her out.  All my years of bicycling and that's the one thing you can't escape.  Big wind in your face?  You just go slower.  Storms?  You wait them out.  A week of humid temps over 100..... you can do that for a day or so, but long term it's the flip side of riding in the winter, there's just no where to hide from the weather.  You can do early morning, and she talks about that quite a bit and when she missed opportunities, but that usually requires lights and is dangerous, unless you're with a big group like RAGBRAI where they pretty much take over the road, even at 5 a.m.  Per her narrative, it sounds as though it got up to almost 116F.  That's probably cancer waiting to happen even if you are loaded up with sunblock that looks like you're apply chalk.

More than a cycling book, it was a memoir.  That bothered a few folks over on Amazon reviews who didn't want to read about how horny Heidi was during her ride.  I'd rather read about the cycling, but it was interesting to see how a woman's cycling trip differs from my own.  Doesn't matter how horny all those endorphins make me, I'm not leaving a mess in a tent.  And a cycle seat tends to put at least a little damper on your dangly bits wanting to do anything after a long ride.  I can't speak for everyone on that, but my twig and berries need time to recover.   I definitely don't have to worry about bleeding [the reproductive sort; I've bled for other reasons on rides, sometimes enough to soak a sock] and what feminine hygiene products might do to chaffing.  Ugh.  Bike seats are bad enough without things between your sit and the seat.

I did find myself, in reference to that horny part noted above, thinking, "She and this neighbor boyfriend aren't going to last.  I wonder if they figure it out before or after they get married."  After.  They lasted three years.  It didn't feel like there was enough there to make that assessment, and maybe some of her post marriage opinions snuck in as much as she tried to stick to the facts and feelings of the time, but it didn't feel like he was on the same page.  Except for being horny.

I enjoyed the cycling parts.  I enjoyed her encounters with other cyclists and with people along her route.  Ironically, people and being alone are the two best parts of long distance cycling, despite seeming at distinct odds.  But I could have done without the ruminations on what it meant to be American and be in America.  Then again, maybe that has to do with my opinion about the insularity of Americans given our recent elections or my recent experience cycling two long days in Ohio and being treated to things like a Confederate flag on structures next to the trail.  I still try to take good people with me on my rides, either family as SAG, or friends on group charity rides [although even then you can end up standing in the middle of a field in Iowa with a clutch of minority cyclists while the person on stage majoritysplains that they should really appreciate how all lives matter]. Alternately, I ride well known trails [but not in Missouri; I'm likely to never ride the Katy] because the businesses and towns directly on the trails tend to be cyclists and cyclist aligned.  Tend.  There are definitely exceptions.  Heidi saw a bit of that per her book where the Transamerican trail [Adventure Cycling Association maintains a route, it's not a trail along the lines of a rail trail] is traveled enough that cyclists setup places/businesses where routes intersect.

Final thought?  I'm likely to never even come close to the amount she cycled even if it wasn't all the way.  I've pedaled long rides through/across Montana and Idaho, Maryland/West Virginia, Iowa [four times], Minneapolis to Milwaukee [was aiming for Chicago], Illinois to Indiana, Wisconsin [as a teen and adult], Ohio, and week rides all over Minnesota.  In the end, I really enjoy the loops in Minnesota, and longer rides in Minnesota where I target something I want to do [pedaling up to Franconia to see Shakespeare in the Park for instance, or breakfast, or breweries].  I guess an advantage per Heidi's book is if I get horny, I'm never too far from home.