Driving the Lake Michigan Circle Tour on the back of a Harley
‘The road is life.” Jack Kerouac wrote that.
For me, it’s more like: The road is vacation. I find peace on the highway.
Ever since my ex-hippie neighbor goaded me into buying a Harley-Davidson during the height of my midlife crisis, I’ve taken to the road on the biggest two-wheeled rolling couch Milwaukee could muster — a 2007 metallic blue Ultra Classic.
During a week of perfect July weather — with packed saddlebags and a brunette holding on for dear life — we headed east, planning to make only left turns in a complete circumnavigation of Lake Michigan.
I didn’t come up with this idea. The Lake Michigan Circle Tour — a collection of scenic routes that, well you know, circles Lake Michigan — was established in 1988. It’s part of the Great Lakes Circle Tour, a 6,000-mile journey around the lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway.
We stuck to the Great Lake we know best, hugging the Lake Michigan shoreline. All told, we covered 1,100 miles and four states in five days.
Day 1
Technically, there’s an official “Circle Tour” route. You can pick it up from the East Side neighborhood at Indianapolis Boulevard and head past Horseshoe Casino and the BP storage tanks into Gary, Ind., on Route 12, which eventually snakes through the beautiful Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
But Gary — how can I put this nicely — is a rough place. I’m not talking about the boarded-up houses, bombed-out business and broken-down dreams of this former steel boomtown. This section of bumpy, inexplicably flooded, pothole-infested road is rough on your behind — and your bike. (Instead, take I-94 to Cline to Route 20, which leads to Route 12. Send me a thank you note later.)
We burned past some of our favorite day-trip destinations: dog-friendly Central Beach in the Indiana Dunes, the zoo in Michigan City, Michigan’s Stray Dog pub in New Buffalo and the White Rabbit Inn in Lakeside. Then the gas gauge said it was time for lunch.
We stopped in St. Joseph, Mich., with its quaint downtown perfect for window shopping, antique hunting and a cold beer after a nice day at the beach. But we only had time for a snack, a tank of gas and a bathroom break.
We lunched at the Golden Brown Bakery Cafe, a southwest Michigan staple since 1938. At this tiny shop, we gobbled tasty paninis, homemade soup and blueberry muffins the size of a football player’s fist.
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