The GG decided to walk to Ypsilanti today and suggested we meet up at the Sidetrack Bar and Grill for lunch. Okay!

Problem. Where the hell IS the Sidetrack? Don’t get me wrong, I have been to the Sidetrack more than a few times. We used to have work luncheons there and while my last MacMu uncle was still alive, his kids would fly in to town and we’d meet up with all of them there. Good times!

COVID hit and my uncle died and my work went totally remote. My uncle and his wife died OF COVID but they were living in a skilled nursing facility and had many health problems by that time (they were 90-something). It was the early days of COVID and things were very chaotic everywhere. Still I am sorry they had to go that way. (The GG disputes that they died *of* COVID and he may be right. I may be misremembering. They did HAVE it though.)

That’s a long way of saying I haven’t been to the Sidetrack in a looooong time and I had a few panicky moments of “where IS the Sidetrack?” before I left. I know how to get TO Ypsi (which is 11 miles away by freeway) and I could clearly *visualize* the Sidetrack but…

I (wisely) looked it up on GooMaps on my phone, then plugged my phone into Cygnus and let it direct me through the trip. I hadn’t wanted to take the I94 Clogway but at that time of day, after ONE traffic light, I realized right quick that it was the best way to go. GooMaps was fine but I tried to turn off the *radio* at one point and GooMaps stopped talking too. I had to turn into a gas station and stop to get GooMaps talking again. One more little hiccup (my error, not GooMaps) and voila! there was the Sidetrack right in front of me, just like I remembered it. Of course, by that time, the GG had already texted me wondering where I was. I was two minutes late, fer kee-reist! (But learn how to use your car, KW!)

We sat at the bar and I kept thinking I was looking out a window and across the street. Until I noticed the GG gawping at me in one of his signature hats. I was looking into a huge mirror LOL!

The GG was ecstatic to score two actual business cards today. One for a business that deals with old coins and stuff (we’re selling, not buying) and one from the guy sitting next to him. I couldn’t hear the whole convo but I think he fixes OLD cars or something. Anyway they were gabbling away about auto assembly plants (the GG put himself through college by working at Hamtramck Assembly and others) and stuff that happened in Royal Oak in the late 60s, where the GG worked the night shift at a gas station on a busy intersection and was robbed at gunpoint a couple times.

P.S. The first syllable of Ypsilanti is pronounced “ip” (short i), not “yip”. If you say it with “yip”, my mother WILL HURL LIGHTNING BOLTS AT YOU. She spent her first year of college there at what was then (I think) called the “normal school” (but now Eastern Mich) before transferring to Michigan State (where she met Radical Betty and Betty’s brother aka my dad). You’ve been warned!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2026 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.