First PALM ride

My wife and I did our first PALM in 1995. We were going to do the MS150 in July and wanted to get some miles in (We had never ridden 75 miles before and were going to do it two days in a row). We had never done a week long tour. The only camping we had ever done was on a canoe trip with a ski club. I'm not sure that counts as camping. We were not sure we were doing the right thing so we called the PALM number in January. For those of you who have been on PALM, you know who answered the phone: Doris West. You also know that we were on the phone for more than 20 minutes. We were reassured, persuaded, and convinced that we were doing the right thing. There was no other choice. We borrowed a tent from a friend, purchased self inflating air mattresses (a must!), and signed up.

In 1995 PALM went from Bridgeman (which has a nuclear power plant) to Monroe State Park (which also has a nuclear power plant). It rained almost every day. But the tent didn't leak and we always found shelter when it rained more than a sprinkle so we didn't notice it that much. (Later we thought that we should redesign the ride t-shirt to have cooling towers at the start and finish and lightening bolts on all the sites in between.) We stayed at a lot of smaller, older high schools. There were a lot of cold showers. It was our first bike tour and we didn't know what to expect so we thought that this was just the way it was. At the first nightly meeting, someone asked where was Kevin. Who's Kevin? We didn't know. Afterwards I overheard a staff members talking, saying what a bad impression first timers must have of PALM. We had a good time and didn't know what they were talking about.

We've ridden PALM every year since. It's the only week long tour that we've ever done. (Part of that is that I switched jobs and only had 2 weeks vacation for 5 years.) We found out that sometimes it doesn't rain at all on PALM, that cold showers are an exception, and who Kevin is. If this is your first time on PALM these are all things that you will find out for yourself (and you'll see Doris West.) On our first PALM, we rode with a friend and basically hung out with him. Don't do this. Talk to people on PALM. One of the points of PALM is you can talk to complete strangers and meet some neat people. After a while you'll know how to put your tent up and tear it down. You'll find out what you should never have taken (and that if you need it, you can buy it. You are still in America.) You'll be able to recognise a sunset. And on this year's PALM, you'll know what's in the town square of Elsie, MI and why.