Lakeside

I've been fortunate to have met a variety of interesting people on this trip. Yesterday was no exception. The day started inauspiciously. I woke up to a second flat tire and found that my second spare tube also had a hole in it. I macgyvered the inner tube with a piece of electrical tape, changed the tire, and headed to a bike shop in Holland.

My tire had a rip in it, causing the two flats. The shop replaced my tire, fixed the flat, and sold me spare tubes that I hope I'll have no need for. On my way out they recommended that I have breakfast across the street at deBoers Bakery.

On my way into the bakery, I met Bryce, who stopped and asked about the trip. Bryce, a World War II veteran, ended up joining me for breakfast and we discussed a wide range of topics. At 83, he was more active than some thirty-somethings I know. In his fifties he and his wife of 63 years began taking bike tours in Europe, New Zealand, and the U.S. He still takes full advantage of all that the region has to offer. We covered politics, the Dutch Reformed, and the personality differences between lawyers and entrepreneurs (Bryce is both). When he noticed how much time had passed he excused himself, letting me know that he had just left the house to put gas in his wife's car. Through her church she assists other elderly in the community, many of whom are younger than her. I can only hope to be as spry at that age as those two.

After stopping at the Holland library -- an impressive, modern, light-filled building -- I finally hit the road. South of Holland, I biked through one beach community after another Saugatuck, Douglas, South Haven, St. Joseph. The influence of Chicago money was evident in the lakefront homes.

I was headed to Lakeside, a small community on the shores of Lake Michigan, ten miles north of the Michigan border. I wanted to spend my last night on the road at the Lakeside Inn, a rustic hotel, on Lakeshore Drive. The inn has an incredible porch, lined with rocking chairs and access to the beach down a steep set of stairs across the street. I raced down to the beach to catch the sunset -- remarkably the first one I had really seen on this trip.

A testament to its history, the Lakeside has a separate building on its grounds, which once served as an artists' retreat. Recently, the owner of Lakeside resurrected the use of this space in collaboration with the owner of an art studio in Chicago. I met two Chicago artists who were staying at the inn and working on setting up a metal-working studio. We had a great dinner at the taxidermy-filled Red Arrow Roadhouse and then a bonfire in the fire pit behind the inn. At the beach, the stars covered the sky right down to the water -- except for the one patch of sky across the lake where the lights of Chicago glowed.