November

So far November has been much better than October. We and a group of friends do a Tuesday night bike ride around downtown Detroit (roughly New Center, Mexican Town, Ren Cen, Belle Isle, Eastern Market, and Wayne State). On last Saturday we had a party to celebrate this year's biking season. We invite everybody who has done the ride at least once and give out "awards". Even though the bike season was over with the miserable weather in October (and the shorter days), it was good to see everybody and talk about the summer. This year we took the suggestions of some new riders and made a few alterations to our route: we started taking East Grand Boulevard after Belle Isle past the old Packard plant all the way to the Poletown plant instead of going through Eastern Market and Wayne State. The road was wider, traffic was lighter, and we got to see more of how Detroit looked back in the day. We also rode the River Walk on the way to Belle Isle instead of taking Larnard. This took us right along the river, hard to beat that. Next year the I-75 construction by the Ambassador Bridge should be done and we'll be able to use the pedestrian bridge to include more of Mexicantown in our ride like we used to do. The Greenways Initiative offers some interesting possibilities next year, besides the Dequindre Cut.

So far the weather in November has been what the weather in October should have been. I was able to ride my bike for the first time in a month. We rode Hines Drive last Sunday. It was a beautiful sunny late fall day. As a bonus, Hines Drive was close to motor traffic so that they could put up the holiday lights so we didn't have to worry about cars. On our way there we went through Rouge Park and went by where they fly remote controlled model airplanes. We also met an artist there who was installing one of his scupltures in the park. And today I was able to squeeze in one more bike ride. Would you believe it, it was in the 60's and sunny two weekends in a row. Fall light and fall colors, what could be better? It's all the sweeter because October's weather has already shown us that we are stealing these days.

The next PALM meeting is November 22. After that I have to get to work: I have to put together the 2010 PALM application and get it to the printer. Remember that we mail out these applications by 1st class mail at the end of January. If you are interested in getting on PALM, the best thing you can do is to get on our mailing list by emailing us your mailing address, ie where you will be in January. You cannot register online (we're too cheap for that) and we don't put the application online for about 10 days. People who get the application mailed to them have the first crack at getting on PALM.