So... there were scary road trips for sure (flash floods, forest fires, etc) but this... for me personally was the scariest. It was Christmas day, we were headed back to Canada. We were in Georgia and there was a problem with our hotel room. It hadn't been cleaned, there were chicken bones on a plate in the bed and pee on the bathroom floor... just gross. So they got us a room at a sister hotel about 2 hrs away. We went there and were completely exhausted, so after checking in, we went to get dinner.
By this point, it's like 10 pm, and the only place open was a Waffle House (kind of like depressing Denny's for those that don't know the brand). We went in and, to put it lightly, everyone inside seemed like someone should do a wellness check on them (e.g. two teens were clearly strung out, and there was a filthy screaming baby that looked like it hadn't been bathed in weeks yet the parents had new iPhones, a domestic violence situation was going on, etc.). Everyone stared at us as we sat down.
After about 10 minutes the police show up... in my head, it's because of the methheads screaming and throwing things or the woman actively scared of her skinhead bf. The officers said a quick hello to a methhead, asked them to say hello to their mom, and then came right over to us. They sat down at our booth blocking us from being able to get up. Now, my mum is black, my dad is white and I'm visibly mixed. Everyone in the diner is white including the cops. They wanted our names, our addresses, our car info, our IDs, our room info. Where we are staying, how long, and if we had firearms. They made it incredibly clear that we were not welcome in their town and that "people like [us]" should be cautious in this area. They suggested we be careful "flaunting [our] lifestyle." They asked for our food to come out to go and did not leave until we had left. When our food came they stood up and put their hands on their holsters and told us to have a good night while we grabbed our things and left.
As we went outside I could see a Confederate bumper stick and Trump/Pence bumper sticker on the police vehicle. We ended up begrudgingly staying over in town as it was too late to leave and the hotel owner was really sweet (originally from Macon). We had promised the officer we'd be gone by 8, we left at 7 am the next day and did not look back. I love Georgia but that experience was the last time I went into the mountains in rural Georgia. Like I literally didn't sleep that night. They were so... scary that I thought I was not going to survive the night. He made me feel like he was disgusted that I even existed and it was truly disturbing.