Louella Holter, by any standards, has lived an unconventional life. In Bikes, Dreams, and the Inner Life, this well-decorated athlete (she’s been national champion in both cycling and Nordic skiing) explores her own life’s adventure story, which begins with tragedy: when she was thirteen years old, her parents and older brother were killed in a tornado in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
Difficult years ensued, in which this self-described “quiet and reserved but completely rebellious” girl completed high school, all the while biding her time. Holter comments, “I was the most free-spirited person I knew, or have ever known to this day.”
This free-spiritedness resulted in countless adventures, which began when Holter arrived in California late in the summer of 1969 via Mexico. Bikes, Dreams, and the Inner Life relays many of these stories, including the trip back from the Pearl Pass mountain bike tour between Aspen and Crested Butte in which she rides a school bus off the edge of a cliff, an off-trail backpacking adventure in the Grand Canyon, various episodes of “the broken-heart blues,” suffering through menopause and hot flashes, her decades-long study of yoga philosophy and what she calls “fruitful forays into other means of seeking,” and the many distinctive dreams she has experienced along the way.
Holter notes, “Throughout my life’s journey I’ve had prophetic dreams, warning dreams, uplifting dreams, counseling dreams, and just generally delightful dreams. Bikes, Dreams, and the Inner Life is an exploration of the world through my eyes. It entertains, but it also encourages others to listen to their own dreams and examine their own inner lives.”
Difficult years ensued, in which this self-described “quiet and reserved but completely rebellious” girl completed high school, all the while biding her time. Holter comments, “I was the most free-spirited person I knew, or have ever known to this day.”
This free-spiritedness resulted in countless adventures, which began when Holter arrived in California late in the summer of 1969 via Mexico. Bikes, Dreams, and the Inner Life relays many of these stories, including the trip back from the Pearl Pass mountain bike tour between Aspen and Crested Butte in which she rides a school bus off the edge of a cliff, an off-trail backpacking adventure in the Grand Canyon, various episodes of “the broken-heart blues,” suffering through menopause and hot flashes, her decades-long study of yoga philosophy and what she calls “fruitful forays into other means of seeking,” and the many distinctive dreams she has experienced along the way.
Holter notes, “Throughout my life’s journey I’ve had prophetic dreams, warning dreams, uplifting dreams, counseling dreams, and just generally delightful dreams. Bikes, Dreams, and the Inner Life is an exploration of the world through my eyes. It entertains, but it also encourages others to listen to their own dreams and examine their own inner lives.”
