We kick this tour off in Oxford MS and if you’ve never spent time here, you’re in for a treat. Oxford isn’t just a starting point, it’s an experience. Classic brick buildings wrap around The Square, front porches stretch wide under big Southern skies, and the hospitality is as smooth as fresh pavement on a backroad curve.

Mark and I had been planning this trip for weeks. We were both itching to escape the brutal summer heat of Oklahoma and Arkansas, and...