Thank you everyone. My understanding was that Lotus was a brand shipped in from Japan, and that they mostly manufactured road bikes. They are no longer in production, so I asked in the "vintage" forum one person was able to tell me the model is called an "Explorer". Apparently since Lotus mostly produced road bikes, a bike like this is pretty rare to see, so it is of some notoriety because of that... but not especially valuable in any monetary way. But that is enough to grab my interest at least somewhat.

I think I am going to go check it out tomorrow. If it is a good fit and I buy it, I will gladly post some close up photographs.

Thank you very much for your input!
Jessica