PALM 2012 Update

As I said in a prior post, we will not be mailing out the 2012 PALM application as we have done in the past. The only way to get the application will be to download it from the PALM website: http://www.lmb.org/palm. The 2012 PALM application will be available for download starting at Jan 12 noon (EST). This will give you 48 hours to download and mail your application before the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Remember to send both the filled application and the signed release page with your check or money order and a business sized stamped self addressed envelope to PALM; PO Box 7161; Ann Arbor, MI 48107. If you mail your application from a post office, you can have them postmark it right then. This may help you get on the ride (if we get don't 1000 applications all postmarked Jan 12).

There's been a change to the route. We couldn't get Oxford as a site. Instead the Thursday site will be Ortonville. This will mean that the last day's ride will be 45 miles. Usually we keep the mileage for the last day down to 30 - 35 miles to be sure everybody is there in time for the PALM parade, PALM provided lunch, and the return buses. We may have to rethink the parade and have the buses leave later. We'll see.

Yesterday it was in the 50's. I try to ride every month and yesterday seemed my one chance for December. Too bad about the rain. Although the weather kept getting cooler thru November and there was some frost, my fall vegetables didn't seem to be in danger. I didn't pull my carrots and parsnips until the last week in November. (I got a pretty good crop of carrots: good size and no forks. But did I get the ugly parsnips! More like misshapen heads than roots.)  And I didn't pull my beets until the beginning of December. Now with my garden put to bed I have nothing left but winter. At least the grass is still green.