Spring is Closer

It's getting close to biking weather. The temperatures are popping above 50 every once in a while and, at least in SE Michigan, there is no snow. After this week's heavy rains there is ice, but no snow cover. With the time change, it's still light when I leave work. I could bike after work, not for long, but I could bike. I try to ride every month. So far I've gotten rides in January and February (and in Michigan), now I need to check March off the list. Our bikes are tuned up and ready to go. Any day now.

I got a new batch of applications to enter and my application was among them: 396 and 397. Not a very low number for somebody who is actually working on registration. The bike shops that travel with us, D&K bikes and Diane Ruggles, have registered and some SAGs. Out of 47 riders, I only had to add the full address for one. The rest of the people were already on the mailing list (and so I could enter them quicker). That should change as I get to the later applications. I'm beginning to see people who emailed us asking if we've gotten their applications. And we've gotten our first 90 year old rider.

PALM is for everyone. It's one of the things that I like about PALM. The daily mileages are such that you don't have to be an athlete to ride PALM, just be in shape. You don't have to worry that you'll stand out if you are older. There are lots of us on the ride. You don't have to worry if you're a woman: it's about 50/50, men and women. You don't have to worry about bringing your kids. There are plenty of kids. You don't have to worry that you'll be too slow: we have people who ride with one kid on a tagalong towing another kid in a bugger. You don't have to worry that you've never done this before: about 1/3 of our riders have never ridden PALM and most of them have never done a week long bike trip before. And you should see the assortment of bikes that people ride! Everything from 30 year old Schwinns to tandems where the riders are facing different directions. We do offer longer optional routes each day but the last and I suppose you could go fast, but what's the point? Why miss your chance to see the things that you go by? If something looks interesting, why not stop?