PALM XXIX

2008 Ride

It is hard to imagine in August when we had no rain in Michigan how much rain we had in June. The week before PALM it rained almost every day and I was worried. It did rain on PALM but, except for Sunday, it rained after we were in camp and had the tents set up but before we had to go to bed. And in Hudson we were treated to full double rainbow.

For those of us using I-75 from the north, getting to Monroe to be bussed to New Buffalo was an adventure: I-75 was closed from the Southfield Freeway (M-39) to I-275.

It rained on the bus ride to New Buffalo, but Sunday started off with sun. We had coffee at Three Oaks and when we turned east we had blue sky ahead of us. Unfortunately we had storm clouds behind us. At Galien, the local police opened a school for shelter. The really bad weather missed us though. We got wet but not soaked. The fruit stop was at a county park that had a fire going and bird feeders for some spectacular viewing. By the time we reached the school, the sun was out and we could set up dry. At sunset we could see some bad storms to our south, but none of them reached us.

Monday, the ride to Sturgis had perfect weather: blue skies, white puffy clouds , and low 80's. It was a 50 mile day and the hilliest of the tour however. We passed a tandem that was for sale on the route. Two young PALM riders stopped, bought the tandem, sagged their bikes, and rode the tandem the rest of the way. There was only one town (Constantine) with three restaurants on the route. Were they busy!

Tuesday, the weather and the sky were the same to Coldwater but the hills were replaced by rolling terrain. The fruit stop was at a hummingbird santuary that sold box lunches. We went by 4 or 5 lakes, decided that this year's most prevalent road kill were rabbits, and were able to do our laundry in Coldwater.

Wednesday was overcast with a brief sprinkle or two. The ride to Hudson had rolling hills and dales with lakes but I missed the sun. We had a great lunch in Hillsdale, right off the town square and there were kittens by a SAG stop. The optional route today was a century. All together 37 people rode the century: the youngest 14, the oldest 79. Hudson had our first hot showers and a rainbow.

There was heavy fog on Thursday as we left for Tecumseh. Fun but we weren't very visible to cars. The police really helped by directing traffic at the one busy intersection. Basically the route was downhill all the way and ended with a 6 mile bike path into Tecumseh. Once again the police provided assistance whenever the bike path crossed a road.

Friday was a 40 mile sprint to Sterling State Park in Monroe to be there for an 11:30 parade of PALM riders. We rode along the Raisin River and went right thru Monroe, fortunately not at rush hour. The PALM parade of riders, all wearing their 2008 PALM shirts, was spectacular as was the PALM lunch on Lake Erie afterwards.

Pictures from PALM 2008

This is a link to all of Dottie's 659 official PALM photos. You can view them using the thumbnails or view them as a slideshow. Enjoy.

Ellie Knesper sent us this link to her PALM 2008 photos. Ellie has ridden PALM 25 times. She is the one who answers all your PALM questions, either by phone or by email.

Bill Richardson is a second year rider from Riverview. He sends along a link to his 310 pictures of this year's PALM.

Josh Clark has been making videos of PALM for three years. Now it's his staff position. Here is his 2008 video. If you look closely you can see both the storm clouds and the fog.

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.