Exploring Saint Joseph

The southwestern shore of Lake Michigan is one of Rooster and my favorite playgrounds. It isn’t far from where we live, and the scenery is beautiful. Our usual destinations are Holland or Kalamazoo. We have stopped for gas, ice cream, or food in Saint Joseph, but we’ve never spent the night. On our way home from looking at the tulips in Holland, we decided to see if we could find a motel room in the small city. We are retired. Why not spend another night in Michigan before we head home? It surprised us that we found a room at a reasonable price on the lake. We spent the remainder of the day exploring Saint Joseph, Michigan.

Road Dog history in Saint Joseph, Michigan

As I stated before, we have passed through Saint Joseph many times in the past. There is one particular memory from back in the day when Rooster and I were riding with The Road Dogs. We’d been on the road all morning. The temperatures soared into the upper 90s, and none of us was in a hurry to get home. We decided to stop at an ice cream place we noticed. Everything seemed normal as we sat down outside to enjoy the cool treat.

The eerie echo of bagpipes filled the air seconds before a man marched through a door and stood in the yard across the street from the ice cream shop. The bagpipe player wasn’t alone for long. A woman followed him into the yard, took a position in front of him, and crossed her arms across her chest. The bagpipe guy couldn’t be deterred. He continued to play with all his might. The woman in front of him didn’t say a word. Her foot started tapping the ground at an alarming rate. The bagpipe player couldn’t take her glare any longer. He marched back inside, and she followed on his heels. Silence reigned for five minutes. We were about to climb back on the motorcycles when we heard bagpipe music flowing from the backyard of the house the couple had entered.

Rooster says the bagpipe guy experience would make a good short story. I wish one of us would have thought to record a video when we had the chance. The thing is it happened so fast and we were so shocked we didn’t think to reach for a cell phone before it the action was finished.

Exploring Saint Joseph, Michigan

In the afternoon, we checked into the motel. Rooster needed to get some work done, so we found a recently reopened coffee shop where we could hang out for a few hours. I didn’t mind the interruption to our exploration of Saint Joseph. I’m reading the last book in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. (I finished it the day we got home.) This seven-book reading adventure started reading shortly after the COVID lockdown. I have to say I enjoyed following Roland and his Ka-Tet’s on their journey to the Dark Tower.

Rooster and I decided to explore Saint Joseph’s downtown area after we finished at the coffee house. There are a lot of interesting old buildings located in this section of the city. We also stumbled across several interesting shops.

Saint Joseph has a five and dime and interesting architecture.

We found a replica of Dogs Playing Cards and other interesting shop windows.

Murals painted on the side of buildings

And Silver Beach is close to downtown

My favorite part of exploring Saint Joseph, Michigan, ended up being the time we spent sitting at a picnic table watching the sunset on Lake Michigan. Due to obligations, Rooster and I had to head home the next day. I felt like there was more to see in this small Michigan town. I’m sure we will come back again. The only things stopping us are time and money.