June 24, 2017. Grosse Ile to Saugatuck, MI.

We had 11 people signed up for the PALM (Pedal Across Lower Michigan) ride this year. Way too many to fit in the truck! We loaded all the bikes and luggage in the trailer and Bill drove out early in the morning with Tom, Dennis and Martha. Here we are as they were ready to leave: Dianne, Dennis, Martha, Tom, Bill and me.

About an hour after they left Francis and Alison picked up Dianne and me for the 4 hour drive to Saugatuck. We picked Adam up along the way, since he was camping with his friend's family. We had a full van!

When we arrived, the rest of the crew had already set up tents. Once Alison's tent was set up and Francis had left, we decided to walk to town for lunch. Saugatuck is a tourist town right on Lake Michigan. This being a Saturday it was quite busy... the restaurant we wanted to go to had a 40 minute wait to get a table, so we went to a soda fountain at the back of the local drug store.

After lunch and ice cream everyone felt much better, including me!

We returned to the campground and read our books until dinnertime.

Then we had a dilemma: we did not want to take the kids on the long walk back to town to wait in line with all the tourists to get a table for ten. So we ate dinner out of the cooler and food bin. We had boiled eggs, potato salad, cheese and crackers, cheese sticks, fruit salad, watermelon, Oreo cookies and carrot cake! Quite a feast. By then Toby had arrived and we visited with Toby, Erika and Bryan until it was time to retire to our tents.