Day One-Bridgman

Well, here we are again.

Unfortunately, we're not in the same moods as usual.

We can all remember the joy and excitement for my mother and I as we were about to embark on the wondrous journey across our fine state of Michigan.

It's just not the same.

I've found the most likely cause to be our lack of hype for the expedition. It's not that we weren't excited this year, but rather what we did. I did a total of fifteen miles of riding in preparation for this. That was an average day for us last year. (Probably my fault for being uninterested.) I figured, I already know what to expect, so why go? Sadly, this led to our lackluster feel for the event. Additionally unfortunate since the idea was mine.

We arrived here in Bridgman after a long 2.5 hour journey along with our special guest, Debbi Atherton, a veteran PALM rider with two rides under her belt (I suppose more of a veteran to us than anyone else.) Once getting there we did our natural routine of setting up camp. Afterwards, we went to a church service with a particularly humorous priest. Then, we said our goodbyes and got some food. The first day doesn't have an organized meal, but always has some sort of food on-site for you to eat, and a central concession stand did the trick for us, settling our stomachs with chips, hot dogs, drinks and pickles (because that's the thing to add to every meaty dish apparently. I found it rather repulsive), and whilst we ate, we sat around together and talked about our stops, and, learned  about future happenings. Next, we went to the meeting, which provides useful info for the upcoming day, but since this was the first one, most of it was beginners info, stuff hardly worth sticking around for, but we did anyways. Then we realized a strong error on my part. On the way to church, I had left my phone in the car and forgot to pick it back up! So, until Wednesday, when we meet up with my dad (we'll go into more info later) we'll be without a phone. We tried to contact my dad over e-mail, but didn't respond quick enough for our interest to last. Also, Blogger signed us out since we last signed in (about one year ago. I don't blame them.) , so we e-mailed them about the Blogger info, but interest had peaked earlier, and we went on to the rest of our activities. (Thanks dad.) That also means that I'm typing this in notepad instead of Blogger. However, despite the beginning feel of disappointment, I still feel that this year will be equally as great as last year. To end, the entire week calls for rain, and the weatherman isn't as off target as it was last year. I hope he's reading his charts upside down or something.

(Amy)

Yes, the feeling is definitely "here we go again".  We were able to get our tents set up in a nice shady area.  Far from the school, but close to some restrooms by the football field - yay!  As I type, there are raindrops starting to fall on the tent.  Not pouring, but enough to let you know they are there.  It's only supposed to be showers tonight,  I think mostly clear tomorrow, and then the big chance of storms is Monday.  Everyone pray that passes us by!  My mindset is this: expect rain and be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't.  We'll see how well that works.  :)

So, no phone until Tuesday night when Jeff meets us in Coldwater.  And we can't upload this until Monday sometime since there is no wifi in tomorrow's school.  We're going upward from there.  Positive thoughts for the rest of the week!   And French toast for breakfast tomorrow.  And I don't have to cook!!  Yippee!!!!!