Day One - SC, NC, TN

Friday, May 20

This was not a good day.

It started with the Internet going out on Thursday night, and Friday morning, while finishing packing and reassuring the nervous dog, calling Time Warner and arranging for a tech to visit... while we were gone. Shout out to Chris for being an awesome person and keeping our animals  alive, AND agreeing to be there to meet the cable technician.

We had to swing by Mount Pleasant to get Aaron's car, and then he headed to Publix to give Krystel the key to dogsit (also much thanks to Krystel!) while I detoured to James Island to get another bottle of pain meds for Sheppy. While on James Island, dashboard lights came on our rental car (the Nissan Rogue), I noticed it needed an oil change in 600 miles, and it started beeping when I accelerated. So off to West Ashley to demand a replacement vehicle, which they couldn't give me fast enough.

5 miles down I-526 to meet Aaron in order to drop his car off at the airport, the 2016 Dodge Journey I was driving lit up to inform me that the right driver-side tire was at 23 psi and needed to be at 36.

Aaron filled up the tire with our air compressor while I stalked into Wendy's to get a root beer and spill said root beer on my wallet.

We dropped his car off without issue, finished logistics, and hit the road only about an hour delayed, but enough to enjoy the best of Columbia rush hour. Near the end of that, the same tire dropped to 28 psi.

Once upon a time, Sheppy and I went to stay in Charleston with Aaron when Athens was predicted to get a big nasty tornadic cold front full of super cells. When driving back afterward, I had to stop and turn around after my eyes exploded and I went blind for some reason. (It was like jalapeno juice, no exaggeration.)

We stopped at the next non-trafficky exit and pulled under a gas station overhang (because of COURSE it was raining) and managed to jack up the car, reinflate the tire, and run inside to buy non-inflammatory fix-a-flat. Also, dispose of the inflammatory stuff we had in the car repair kit. So that was another 30-45 minutes.

Just as we were leaving, two cars rear-ended each other at our exit. So there was another 30 minutes. We pulled over in a church parking lot to pray and I promptly freaked out because it was the exact same exit as the time I went blind.

Eventually, after definitely hitting the 3-5 miles of slow driving to evenly disperse the fix-a-flat, we were moving. And also stopping for gas in Spartanburg because the Journey gets the MPG of a boat.

We reached Bristol at 11pm, 11 hours after we got in the car at home. But in Bristol is Aaron's lovely grandmother who offered us a nice cozy room and food and sympathy. Also in Bristol was Aimee, who had left FIVE HOURS AFTER WE DID and got there 20 minutes before.

So that was day one. It was not a great day.

We didn't even take pictures.