All-Night Movers drove to Athens.

January 8 2003 by David Rhoden. Day .

We wanted to start our winter tour so we left a day early. We went to Athens so we wouldn't have to do that whole Altlanta drive the day of the show.

We took Sara's Honda Civic. It was a manual, and I was getting better at driving it, but I was still worried.

"There's a stoplight in the middle of a hill in Athens, or Congress Avenue," I told Slade. "I'm gonna get stuck on it and not be able to get the car back in gear." He said that was ridiculous.

I was nervous and pre-occupied the whole drive. We stopped in Kiln, Mississippi, home of Brett Favre, and slade got potato logs at a Chester Chicken stand in a gas station. For the next half fhour he would pass them in front of my face, saying "Rogs? ROGS?" in an increasingly stridcent voice.

When we got to Athens I got stuck at that light. I was the first car. I had never started a manual car on a hill before.

Slade directed me to let the clutch out and give it gas, but I was sure I was going to kill the motor. It didn't help that Slade started laughing. And cars started honking. I wasn't sure what to do. So, very stupidly, I put it in second gear.

Slade cracxked up. The motor was roaring and stinky smoke came from under the hood. I think cars started to pass me. Slade screamed, "No! No! Put it in first!" So I did, and I somehow managed to get us going, away from the cloud I thought.

We went to a bar called the Manhattan bar about ten blocks away. When we got there there were people out front talking about what they thought that horrible odor was. I can't believe the car didn\t just die after that.

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