PALM XXIX

2007 Ride

If you came back from this year's PALM a little tired, you had good reason: we checked and this year's PALM was the longest six day PALM that we've ever had: with detours 305 miles. And that's if you didn't do what I did. On Sunday I wanted to ride down to Lake Michigan to start my ride. We missed a turn and ended up doing the entire Saturday optional of 17 miles. It was beautiful but since we were handling late registration on Sunday we got a late start. You can imagine what we felt like when we found ourselves back at Spring Lake at about noon with the whole day's ride in front of us and the temperature rising. We weren't alone: the people we were sponsoring on the ride were waiting for us at the school.

The first three days of this year's PALM were hot, with the temperature reaching into the 90's. (I'm writing this in Febuary: 90 doesn't seem so bad. No, check that: 90 doesn't seem possible.) These days were all 50 mile days. For us this meant that we had to start early and not stop a lot to avoid biking in the afternoon. This is not why you ride the PALM: you are supposed to stop at whatever looks interesting. We were still able to stop a lot, but on the last three days.

We were supposed to get severe weather on Wednesday. Our bike ed staffer Al Lauland was asked what to do. I expected a little speech about brakes not working when they get wet, etc. Al said: Take cover. Look for porches and barns. Sure enough some storms blew through on Wednesday. We took cover in a restaurant and on a porch. We stayed dry. Our bags, however.... But that's why we put everything in a plastic bags before packing it into our carryons.

Once again we had lunch spots on the road sponsored by local groups (in Eureka) or local towns (in Montrose). Generally PALM has more hills at the start and smooths out toward the end. Not this year. The ride into Almont on Thursday was the hilliest part of the tour. So much for the Thumb being flat. However our riders were treated to facials in Columbiaville: not something you can expect on every PALM.

This year's PALM ended not on a lake but a river: the St. Clair River in Palmer Park. Our riders were treated to the sight of lake freighters and blue skies as they assembled for the parade. (PALM traditionally ends with a parade of the riders all wearing this year's PALM shirt.) As you can see, this year our shirts matched the sky.

Pictures from PALM 2007

Holly Johnson had to take over as the PALM photographer on short notice when Dottie Delehanty had to miss the PALM. Here are all her photos in two sets. "On the Road" are individual shots of PALM riders on the road. "In camp" are mostly informal shots at different sites. Enjoy.

Ellie Knesper sent us this link to her PALM 2007 photos. Ellie has ridden PALM 24 times and has held just about every staff position. Currently she is Mail Granny, standing in for Doris West. (Wait a few seconds for the pictures to load.)

Bill Richardson (one of two on the ride) is a long time PALM rider. He sent me this CD of his PALM pictures.

Tim Mercer is a first time PALM rider who sent me this link to his photos. We got to learn about Flickr together.

If you have memories, highlights, pictures, blogs, comments etc. that you would like to share, please send them to me and I'll add them to the web site.