Michigan Bound on My Second Wind

For the moment I’m going to temporarily skip over a significant part of my trip (the actual tournament) and move on to what happened the next morning…or the same morning if you want to be technical. Because this was an overnight tournament playing from 1:00-5:00 am it meant that by the time I got to check into my hotel for the night it was really the following morning and I had been up traveling and tagging for 27 hours straight. And since we’d be playing the same hours the next night it’s logistically tricky to make a sensible hotel reservation. To save me from having to pay for a second night’s stay at the hotel Skywalker was kind enough to offer me a place to crash after my checkout at noon, but the thing about travel is that it throws your body clock so out of whack that even though I went to bed at 6:00 in the morning I was somehow up and ready to go again by 10:00 am. So, rather than spend the day sleeping (I could do that on the plane going home) I took that second wind and figured out where I could play some tag during the day. Just FYI, this is what I do during most tournaments…go play tag elsewhere during the break! But since I played south of Fort Wayne the day before it seemed “sensible” (in quotes because I’m not sure that’s the right adjective) to drive as far north into Michigan as I could and tag my way back south to return in time for tournament night two of BFTF.

So I drove about three hours up to Holland, Michigan and my first stop of day two was to The Lost City. This place is rather aptly named. You see, it’s located inside a really cute shopping area that is designed to look a little like its own little town, but the plaza is large enough that I had to drive around it a bit. Thank goodness for a birthday parent with balloons walking by…always a good sign you’re near a tag facility! So I followed in that same direction and found my way to The Lost City!

This is a very cool arena. Inside the briefing room there is a 3D map.

I was told the owner designed the 5000 square foot arena himself and it is not only visually stunning with a lot of really detailed artwork throughout, but it’s also architecturally different from most arenas I’ve played.

There are three ramps on each side to access the second level. Two ramps lead you to the top center where one of the bases is located (good use of the levels for sure).

The other ramps lead you to one of two octagonal platforms on each side of the higher levels. I’d actually liken them to little rooms on each side.

This site was using Nexus, but the shot speed was quite fast (because kids don’t care about accuracy) and they cut like butter with good, strong beams. They felt well maintained.

We played a fast-paced game and on the way out I admired the beautiful wall art.