Mr. Q in Downtown Nashville

Navigation Lady Goes Postal

road trip: back from Rend Lake

The trip back from Rend Lake was as nice as the Drive up. There was a detour sign that would have kept me out of some of the famed Nashville road construction traffic, but I missed it because I couldn’t see over the SUV in front of me. Oh well. I continued on. Approaching the stadium, the navigation lady directed me off the highway. I figured she must be directing me to a connecting on ramp because I was soon to change the direction of my travel. But soon I am being guided through all sorts of surface streets. What is going on???

Yes, the Navigation Lady lost it. It had switched from highway mode to avoid highways. I was sent round in circles. At one point the screen froze. “well that’s not good” I thought aloud, and looked over at the cow sitting on the front seat “do you know how to get home?” The cow didn’t answer. I suspected he did not. In my roaming I had passed the Hard Rock Café. Rather than deal with the Navigation Lady’s melt down, I decided it was time to stop for lunch.

Lunch finished, and a bit of site seeing done, time to get back on the road. I double check the SatNav settings and off we go. Great, major construction right at the on ramp and the merging lanes to the other road I need to get to. I look at the SatNav screen, it points an arrow north, then east, then north then west, then south then east … ack! It couldn’t figure out where I was and where I needed to go! I looked at the cow sitting beside me, “the navigation lady’s really lost it MooMooMoo.” He just stared.

We eventually got out of that mess, and returned home safely. All with enough time to scrub the bugs off the front bumper and bonnet.

Mr. Q Goes Fishin'

road trip: Knoxville, TN to Rend Lake, IL & back

A friend of mine is married to a man who is active in the PVA Bass Tour. It didn’t take much to convince me to make this road trip. It was only 6 hours, short by my standards, and I’d get to hook up with three fun other gals that I never get to see.

Let me start by saying that the Mini Cooper is bug friendly. Meaning every bug remotely near your car, seems to end up splattered on it. Let me also say this is a year of the Cicadas. In case you are wondering, one Cicada hit at approximately 70mph (okay maybe it was 80) covers one third of the windshield. Not a good thing when it’s the portion right in front of the driver’s eyes. A Minor inconvenience, I had window cleaner in the boot. A beautiful day for a drive, I was well on my way. Until the approach into Nashville. What is it with Tennessee and road construction? This appears to be a state that is not happy unless they are tearing up roads.

Now of course when there is any kind of activity off to the side of the road, one must slow down and stare. This is one of the laws of nature apparently. Eventually I got on the other side of Nashville and it was smooth sailing into Rend Lake. Sort of. The Navigation Lady tired to send me INTO Rend Lake. In 800 ft, turn left. That can’t be a street, maybe it’s up a bit more. If possible, make a legal U turn. What? I didn’t see a street. Prepare to turn right. That can’t be the street. If possible make a legal U turn. Ok, that must be the street. You are not on a digitized road. WHAT????

To this day, I have no clue where I was, but it looked like a place I wasn’t supposed to be driving. I eventually found the hotel, and hooked up with my friends. We spent the next few days exploring the area (not a whole lot to do there), lounging on the beach, and watching the guys fish.


Rend Lake