My H and I are attending a concert out of town this weekend with friends. Our friends got the tickets cheap and offered us a pair to go with them (we paid for ours). They suggested we drive together to the event and have fun in the parking area before hand. We are all for this. During discussions on meeting up my friend mentioned that we'll drive to the other city (about 2 hours away) and meet up with another mutual friend of ours and then all drive together to the event in mutual friends car. They're a little farther away from the concert so we'd have to go past it and then come back to get to the place. Plus, we'd then have to drive back to their house after and rejoin traffic out of the city and finish the commute for 2 hours.
My dilemma: H does not do well in traffic, is horrid in it actually. He's better driving himself, but in this instance we'd be the passengers. He's not (and I'm not as well) too thrilled with going the extra distance before the show and then having to back track and then get into more traffic on the way back. Would it be ok to tell our friends that we'll meet them there? I feel horrible, because they invited us and got us the tickets - but the idea of all that extra driving and added aggravation for H along with the 4 hour round trip, just does not sound like fun. Thoughts?
Short of it: Is it ok to back out of driving together with friends if you're still going to party with them and enjoy the concert with them even though they invited you to the concert?