Okay… We go to MooU once a year to help run a North Country Trail (NCT) booth at the Quiet Water Adventure Symposium. Which you know if you are one of my nine Reglear Nucular Taggers because I’ve been blathering about it for the last couple days.

MooU is also the alma mater of both the GG and I with the disclaimer that we did NOT know each other while we were in attendance there. I believe there were 45,000 students at that time? Anyway. This is a photooo of the western end of the section of Grand River Ave. that runs through MooU. I once knew the 3-4 block Moo-U section of that street like the back of my hand. In the Jurassic Age, it was a series of student-y shops. Campus book store, Hosler’s where I bought “cool” clothing when I could afford to, and I fergit what else but if you were around in the Jurassic Age, you might remember the kind of businesses that catered to college students at a large university.

The stores have changed over the years but (until now) not the skyline. Hosler’s is long dead and I dunno how students buy textbooks nowadays but guessing online for the most part although the bookstore may still exist. But still, the skyline consisted of one/two/*maybe* three story buildings and there was a parking lot behind this particular block. I mean a surface lot, not a big structure.

This year? Friday night. We were meeting friends at Beggar’s Banquet for dinner after setting up our booth at the agriculture pavilion. As we approached our planned parking space in front of the union (and we could only park in front of the union because it is Spring Break), I did a huge double-take! Where the heck did those umpteen story buildings come from? They were not there last year! We have stuff like this all over downtown Planet Ann Arbor (home of ANOTHER large university) but our downtown is a a lot bigger than East Lansing’s downtown and draws a more diverse crowd. Many of our umpteen story buildings are geared toward “young professionals” (whatever the f*ck that means), not the upscale (?) student housing that I suspect this behemoth is.

The old parking lot is gone too. The new behemoth covers the entire block now and there are businesses on the *backside* too, topped with more apartments. I can’t describe it well. I am kind of speechless about the whole thing.

We and our NCT friends left our hotel this morning for breakfast at the Lansing Fleetwood Diner, then we somewhat sadly went our separate ways. They were all off to visit grandchildren. We were off to Flint (yes, *that* Flint) to re-supply FlaMan and help him out with a few things. We 🧡 FlaMan and glad we stopped there today! Then south to The Planet where I caught up with Mouse @Plum and wished Joyce a happy bday (and was talking so much at the checkout that I flubbed my debit card payment TWICE – get a GRIP KW!). Tomorrow is Monday. Hi Ho!

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