In 2010 I took my new girlfriend ( now wife), Alice, up to one of my favorite spots: Leelanau County. And we took a Red Tandem along with us for rides around the beautiful dunes, woods and small towns. But it wasn’t the breathtaking beauty that sealed the deal that our relationship was for real, it was how we overcame a wheel theft that nearly ruined our vacation. It was being able to jump directly to troubleshooting and trying to make something good out of the time we had there. And we did, we learned of an old traveling bike repairman living in Leland. We were able to find George and his hippy van just east of the famous bluebird restaurant, and he was able to find us a wheel in his cluttered house and install it right then and there.
Jump to 2023, and we returned to Leelanau for our 11th wedding anniversary. The red tandem has now been passed on to a young couple, and Alice sports a tiny e-bike, but still a brilliant red, and I brought my gravel bike.
We headed up north on Monday morning after a late night of helping to run a salsa dance event. It seemed only right to take our time getting going, so I did not hurry Alice in getting up. We pushed off from GR around 10 am and arrived in Empire right around 12. We were already a bit hungry, but decided to press on towards Glen Arbor on our bikes, anticipating being able to get there by 1. The weather was unseasonably cool, about 50 degrees as we got on our bikes. Cook enough for me to wear gloves and a warm layer under the bike helmet.
We rolled north out of Empire on the peaceful and quiet strech with no one visible on the trail. The cool weather and forecast for rain seemed to have diminished the crowds. We stopped at a little resort called Dunewood, which has always intrigued me. It looks like an old motel that’s been renovated for folks who like to be right near the Sleeping Bear dunes. There were vacancies surprisingly.
Back on the bikes we passed under along the side of the hulking Sand Dune climb and along flat dune habitat towards Glen Haven, where we stopped to look at some historical exhibits of early life in the area.
We were getting quite hungry and we pressed on the last few miles toward Glen Arbor. We passed throught a stand of trees that were decimated in a derecho wind storm about 7-8 years ago. The land s starting to recover with many shoots of new trees and bushes. The old growth won’t return quickly.
We stopped at an old favorite and famous spot in Glenn Arbor — Art’s Tavern. It was old out side so they were not serving on the patio. We waited 15 minutes for a seat inside. The new prices were a little shocking – $62 for a modest but good lunch with a beer a piece. And they ony accept cash. We counted out all of our bills and change and just had enough.
After a satisfying lunch, we headed back towards Empire by the same route. All of the equipement worked perfectly and the temperatures remained cool, and perfect for cycling. We were eager to get to our hotel in Traverse City, so we packed everything up and headed that way. We were staying in a new hotel called Tru which is in the Hilton family of hotels, which allows Alice to get a steep discount, so we took advantage of it. We were immediately impressed by the level of thought that went into designing the spaces, both in the hotel rooms and the common rooms. A very comfortable space to sleep and have breakfast.