So, I just woke up after sleeping 16 hours. Just got back from seeing the Dismemberment Plan in Louisville. That's right, me and three of my friends drove upwards of 1600 total miles for 28 hours to see a band.

We left at 6:30 PM on Friday. We reached Atlanta about midnight, and we thought it might be helpful to stop and get some food. So, we took an exit to Downtown Atlanta. Immediately getting off the offramp, three cop cars with light flashing sped directly infront of us to the right, making absurdly fast right turns on the next road. We didn't think much of it and kept driving. We tried to find some sort of 24-hour restaurant. On the way, we ended up passing a what appeared to be a drug bust. At least 5 different Atlanta police vehicles were parked on the left side of a street. When we turned left, we saw about 7 police cars pinning another car up against a sidewalk. There were several black people with matching bandanas talking to police officers. At this point, we got the hell out of Atlanta, and ended up eating at a Waffle House just outside of what Linh refered to as "The City of the Falcons, the Atlantic Ocean, and drug busts".

We reached the mountains of Tennessee at about 3 AM, which was kinda scary. None of us had driven on anything close to 5% grade inclines before. The only other vehicles on the road are huge trucks, and our plush 1990 Toyota Camry kept making bizarre noises up and down each hill. When you're going downhill that early in the morning, everything in your mirrors is pitchblack. It was also scary since we were all staving off passing out, well, except for Linh, who has the ability to sleep anywhere.

At about 7 AM, we reached Louisville, but it took us another hour to reach Ben's house. Linh, Justin and I were completely out of our element: 35 degree weather, large hills, flooding rivers, houses with basements,.... you get the picture - a strange, unfamiliar land. We all passed out at about 8:30 in the morning, and I woke up at 4 PM. I guess the rest of the crew had already eaten and played some frisbee. We then went to a record store where we had originally intended seeing Tenacious D play, but it turned out we were too late. It turns out that they only ended up signing autographs anyway, so no big deal. Justin bought a bunch of cds, as well as a Neutral Milk Hotel album, which has since become his latest obsession. Ben got a bunch of cd's too, and I picked up a copy of Del's No Need For Alarm. Ben tried taking us to a few of his favorite restaurants, but most of them were too full. So, we ended up eating at some Irish Pub that had pretty good food. I got to see part of the IU game; I'm still in shock that IU is in the final four. After dinner we went to the venue, and ended up having to wait 2 hours for Cex, the first act, to go on. I liked him alot; a funny, but good, Hip-hop act. He had songs about riding bikes, bad jobs and even busted a freestyle about topics the audience suggested. Of course, we suggested he rap about driving 15 hours to a concert. Although Justin told me that he was using a beat by Common, the freestyle was very good. "I know you're stressed that there's only one Cex,..." Death Cab for Cutie was up next. I liked some of their songs, but to be honest, I got kinda frustrated after awhile. Some girl kept screaming about how much she loved Death Cab, and yelled "awesome" after every song. It was a little odd. The Dismemberment Plan was amazing as always. They opened with Gyroscope and The City. Other songs included Ice of Boston (featuring a large dance party), Memory Machine, Do the Standing Still, OK Jokes Over and The Other Side (my request). They had an encore featuring Bra (by request) and Onward Fat Girl. When Travis announced they were going to play Bra, Joe looked sincerely shocked, as they rarely play that song. We all bought some "Death and Dismemberment Tour" posters, drove to Ben's house, and passed out.

We got up at 11 AM, and began the drive home. Justin drove for the first 3 hours, and then we jokingly told Linh he had to drive the rest of the way back. However, he took our gesture seriously, and kept telling us he could drive for 10 consecutive hours. We hit really bad traffic in Nashville and somewhere northwest of Chattanooga. To pass the time, we each took turns getting out of the car and jogging down the highway. North of Chattanooga Justin began interviewing random people in front of us. It was hillarious. Somewhere before Atlanta, we stopped at a gas station. Linh happened to see a large semi run into a small pole and scrape its gas tank across it, causing a large amount of diesel fuel to spill on to the road. We decided to get back on the road before someone lit a match.

After speeding through Atlanta to avoid gang warfare, we stopped at a Super Wal-mart, where Linh taught us a game he called "Horse Ball." It was basically volleyball with a net composed of trashcans, and instead of hitting the ball with our hands, we used toy riding-horses as bats. After the game, we bought some candy, and then played some frisbee in front of a closed Lowe's. We got back on the road about 10 PM, and I drove for the next two hours. I stopped driving when I got pulled over for speeding in Cook county. I probably should have slowed down once I noticed that all the other cars on the road were doing the speed limit in the right lane.

Justin drove for the last three hours to Gainesville. We got home at 3 AM, and I passed out until about 3 hours ago. Justin brought his video camera on the trip, so pretty soon everyone will be able to vicariously live our wacky road trip.