This summer, the lady friend and I took a road trip through a healthy chunk of these southern United States, hitting up an equal number of breweries and hiking trails. I planned the route to have stops in Nashville, Gatlinburg, and Asheville—with Charleston and Hilton Head as our final destinations.
Day One: The trip started off, well, poorly, as minutes before we planned to leave, one of the dogs got sick on the floor, and the lady friend broke down in tears.
One emergency trip to the vet later, one three hour fight over whether to even leave at all—won by me only by repeating the words “Non-Refundable” and showing her the exact amount that had already been spent on hotels and Air BNBs—and we were off.