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