Push the pedal down, watch the world around fly by us.

"North Bayshore" 

I have driven this road a million times, but this was the first time I realized how enticing and enriching it really is. It's filled with treacherous curves and is as tattered as a cherished baby blanket. It follows the shore of Lake Michigan and is enclosed with elaborate beach houses and foliage ranging from chartreuse to emerald. The evergreens on each side of the road grow high and arch into each other, forming a thatched tunnel overhead. There are at least five different shades of grey gravel loosely filling the hundreds of potholes, haphazardly giving away the roads age. It seems new holes appear every summer and the damages from the previous summers blunders are half heartily filled with yet another grey patch. It's skinny. When an oncoming car approaches, each car adheres to the other by driving half off the shoulder to accommodate one another. This of course is done out of habit, and those of us who are polished "Bayshore" drivers maintain our superfluous speed. 

Yet, not everyone prefers "North Bayshore".  You see there is a choice to be made when heading into good old Elk Rapids from our homely little subdivision; go straight and take the invariable, freshly paved, one colored, 55 mile per hour road. Or you can take the right turn. Sure, the right turn onto "North Bayshore" will lead you down a road that takes you five extra minutes to get into town. Sure, the highway is more efficient. Sure, the lack of bumps with save you a swig of Pepto. But that right turn, that one simple hand over hand motion on your steering wheel could open your eyes to hidden allure of the world. The highway is easy. You take the back way and you learn the unwritten ways of the road. The ways that aren't marked with signs or engrained into your head. On that beaten up path are the rules that you decipher by simply observing your surroundings, by using your common sense to safely find your way. You can take the highway and artlessly go through the motions of life, or take the the challenge and adapt to something a little different, a little more difficult. 

Perhaps when you see it from afar it seems daunting. Yet when you get to the end of "North Bayshore", the trees begin to dwindle into beach allowing light to once again filter through the windows of your car and fill your body with the warmth of Michigan summer sun. The road widens, a line of old grey road meets black, freshly paved gravel with one final "bump", and a lowly stop sign sits anxiously awaiting your arrival.