It's Never to Early (or Late) for Safe Cycling

This is my favorite time of year. The temps are cool, the Fall colors are vivid, and there seem to be fewer cars on the road. There is still a lot of opportunity to ride before the snow starts to fly.

The 2011 PALM (PALM XXX) has been scheduled for June 18 - 24, 2011 and as a compulsive planner myself, I know it's never to early to start preparing. There were suggestions from last year's PALM that we provide some on-line, safe cycling training, especially for those that may not have much on-road experience. Below is a link to an on-line version of the Traffic 101 class that League of American Bicyclists instructors teach. It is essentially the same material I cover during the nightly PALM classes that I teach. I do not want to put myself out of a job, but if you have never had any formal cycling training, this is a great way to start. Even if you think you are experienced and don't need any training, you may be surprised at what you might learn.

http://bikeed.org/

This free course is endorsed by the LAB and will give you something to do during those dark winter days as you wait for the PALM application to arrive in the mail.

As the ride approaches, I will also be posting links to videos that demonstrate vehicular cycling. Let me know if you have any favorite safe cycling videos.

Please post up if you have any questions.

Applications Finished and a Warning

Things slowed down application wise in March. OK, things stopped application wise in March. Things changed in April: we processed 252 applications in the first week in April. We've added a few since then and we now have 845 people registered. That's everybody but maybe 20 problems. Everyone should have received their confirmation letters by now. If you haven't, please email us. You could be one of the 20 problems or we could have sent your confirmation to the wrong address somehow. If you email us, we can email your confirmation letter to you directly, bypassing that messy mailing stuff.

I mentioned in January that you had until May 15 to buy meals and bus rides. A lot of you took advantage of this and included notes saying that you will be buying meals later. Last year we had roughly 650 people at each meal. So far the most meals we've sold for any meal has been 620 for breakfast at Otsego. We have yet hit 600 at any dinner. I have a feeling that we are going to be deluged with meal requests. If you intend to buy meals, NOW is the time. PALM doesn't make any money on the meals: whatever we collect we give to the people making the meals. (It's a fund raising opportunity for local groups.) After May 15 we give each site the number of breakfasts and dinners to prepare. It's in their financial interest to prepare exactly that many meals. Even if they make a little extra, we are talking about bikers here. They make locusts look like anorexics. Don't expect to buy meals at the site. If you want the meals, buy them now. Here's a link to this year's application. You can use it to order meals and/or bus rides. You don't have to fill it out completely, eg sign the waiver again. Your name would be nice. Please include a stamped self addressed envelope. I am so tired of addressing envelopes.

Doris West Slow and Determined III

Doris had some mean doctors. They kept insisting she was too old to bicycle across Michigan. But Doris was a stubborn lady. Finally, at age 87, she gave in and stopped coming on PALM. Doris was tricky too. She had friends drive her to down on her birthday and we celebrated with her. By age 90 the mean doctors kept her from pedaling at all. But Doris had a new group of friends so she was the lead harmonica player in a harmonica choir. They laughed a lot and played the harmonicas some (which was good because they were funnier than they were musical).

Another thing became evident this decade: how much all the branches of the West family meant to her. I remember the picture on her wall of Pat and Isaac on a cross-country motorcycle trip. And pictures of the far-flung Wests. If you come to the memorial service for Doris you will be a lot of bicyclists wearing bright shirts, one of them will be a shirt that has the first 25 PALM patches on it. In this last decade Doris would have replaced all of the bicycling patches with pictures of the children, grand- and great grandchildren.

My wife and I had dinner last night with good friends. The guy is a 4th grade teacher here. Each year he would take his students to Brecon Village to hang with the golden agers. Doris was the favorite oldster. The student who was most affected by Doris was named Gerry. The circle of life....

On March 20 at 3 pm the people who were lucky enough to know Doris are gathering to laugh and celebrate an amazing woman. Come join us: http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/annarbor/obituary.aspx?n=doris-h-west-barnard&pid=140493424

Pictured are the Brecon Village Harmonicats, photo by Ann Hunt at Doris's 90th birthday.

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

Doris West, Slow and determined

Doris West in the eighties

[This is part one of a three-part series]

The Burtons got to know Doris West in 1980 when we worked with her on the Ann Arbor Bicycle Coordinating Committee [a2bc2]. Two notable things came from that committee:

1. In 1981 Ann Arbor was designated one of the top 10 bicycling cities in the country.
2. Three people from the committee started a bicycle tour called Pedal Across Lower Michigan [PALM].

Doris West was one of the PALM founders. For the next 25 years she was the voice of PALM. Officially she was Mail Granny. Over that period Doris convinced thousands of people that they could pedal all the way across lower Michigan, they could bring their grandparents or they could bring their grandchildren, that they could laugh with friends and family . . . . Today thousands of people around the world had one amazing week because of Doris

The Burtons knew Doris when she had her own hips, when she was a librarian at the University of Michigan. We knew Doris when she brought her own children and grandchildren on PALM. We knew Doris when she would draw a smiley face on your envelope if you remembered a SASE with your application... or a frowny face if you didn't remember.

We biked with Doris in the eighties and we are still biking with Doris today. . . .

[next: Slow but determined]

Application Update

With the confirmations that I mailed out last Tuesday, I have processed 587 riders so far. From what I've heard from Ellie, we will be registering 757 riders plus about 90 more staff, SAGs, truck drivers, bike shops, and sponsored riders. So I am about 2/3 of the way thru the participants and it's already March. I'm going to have to take a week break from working on the applications now so I will be hard pressed to get them all done by the end of March. In the meantime, I'll be sending emails to everyone whose application I haven't processed yet and whose email I have. I hope this will relieve any worries that riders who have sent in applications and haven't heard from us have. Once again, if you mailed in your application and haven't heard from us and haven't had your check cashed yet, don't worry. You are on the ride. We returned all the checks to the people who were too late a month ago. If you are not on the ride, you would know by now. This is counter intuitive, but true.

The weather has been great: lots of sun and the temperature stretching to the 50's. I was able to take a short 10 mile bike ride late Saturday. I used my mountain bike with the knobby tires in case there was any ice and rode on Outer Drive. The sun kept me warm enough even on the way back when I was going against the wind. I haven't ridden a bike since November and it felt like it. Gripping the handlebar and leaning forward made my arms tired. My legs felt stiff and awkward. I could sit on the bike, but then again I didn't go that far. I forgot how much water you need to drink to ride even when it's cool. I've got a lot of work to do before I'm ready for PALM.

I saw more signs of spring. Today I saw an honest to God robin in a tree. Yesterday I saw a rabbit. (Not as thrilling for gardeners as a robin however.) I know that there will be more cold weather and snow this month, but the sun and the 50's sure improved my attitude.

Doris West Thank you for everything

We thank Doris West's son Patrick for providing us with Doris's
obituary. It will appear in the March 14 and March 18 publications of
annarbor.com.

WEST, Doris H. (Barnard). Born in Enderlin, North Dakota in 1917,
Doris and her family moved to Monrovia, CA where she attended school,
graduating from Monrovia High School. She married in 1935, living in
Texas, Oklahoma, Alaska, and Washington before moving to Michigan in
1956, where she worked for the Bureau of Government Library at the
University of Michigan until her retirement in 1983.

Doris is survived by her children Gerald (in AZ), Sheila (in GA),
Diane (in WA), and Patrick (in MI). She was predeceased by a daughter
Helen. She leaves 9 grand children and 7 great grand children.

Doris never drove a car.

She used a tricycle for her local transportation for 38 years.

During the gas crisis, her tricycle bore the sign

"My 'CAR'. NO Gas".

Doris was an active member of the Ann Arbor cycling world. She served
on the Mayor's Bicycle Coordinating Committee, and worked to make
biking accessible to beginners, leading bike rides in Ann Arbor and
working to improve bike paths. She rode in PALM (Pedal Across Lower
Michigan, a week long bike ride across Lower Michigan) for many
years, where she was usually one of the oldest people on the ride.
She even went to Great Britain to pick up a trike with better gearing
and spent several weeks riding the roads in England on the new trike.

Interested in learning about plants, people, and the exact meaning of
a word, she kept 3 unabridged dictionaries well used. She had many an
interesting story to tell and had a quotation for any situation.

In her 80's, when breathing difficulties arose, she became part of a
University of Michigan pulmonary rehab program in which she learned
to play a harmonica. The harmonica group joined together in music and
laughter to build lung power for more effective breathing. After she
moved to Brecon Village in Saline, she became known for her impromptu
"Happy Birthday" harmonica serenades for other residents.

Doris passed away February 24, 2010 at 92 years of age. A memorial
will be held in the meeting room at Brecon Village in Saline, 200
Brecon Dr, Saline, 48176 on March 20th at 3 p.m. The family invites
you to come to share your memories.

Memorial donations may be made in Doris's name to PALM, PO Box
7161, Ann Arbor, MI 48107.