Doris West, Slow AND Determined

{continued from Part 1 at http://palmbiketour.blogspot.com/2010/03/doris-west-slow-and-determined.html )

In the second decade of knowing Doris two things come to mind

(Before I get started I should say that Doris had both hips replaced (giving me a chance to have more biking miles than she did for a year), ... and oh yes my family joined her on PALM in 1986, ... and she tricked me into being on PALM staff, but I digress)

1. Ann Arbor's own bike club (the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society or AABTS) realized how much it needed to expand ridership. AABTS had A, B and C rides. When they added Doris's rides it needed another designation: D+ rides. I am pretty sure that means Doris AND all the locals she introduced to bicycling. AABTS said these rides were for the Slow But Determined. In truth, Doris was both Slow AND Determined, and damned proud of it.
2. But Doris was not satisfied with just PALM and AABTS riding. So she had her own three person biking club, riding with Louise and Ruth. This trio showed anyone, who slowed down and watched, how to grow older. They biked, laughed, enjoyed everything around them. Only one story: One Friday morning I came across these three down by the river. Doris was fixing a flat. After getting Doris's trike ready to go I asked where they were headed. "To Lansing," because there was a Women on Wheels ride that weekend. They were going to bike ~180 miles over the next four days. WOW!!
   

So . . . we biked with Doris in the nineties and we are still biking with Doris today.... the right way: Slow and determined.

[Stay tuned for Doris in the new millennium]

The photo of Doris, Louise and Ruth is by Ann Hunt