[Off-topic] soupmagnet:
Here's a story for you...

Me and a buddy of mine went to go see Rabbit in the Moon and Bad Boy Bill platy at the Austin Music Hall one weekend. We went with a friend who drove all the way to Ft. Hood from Austin to pick us up (about an hour drive, one way) because we had no transportation at the time. We get into Austin, spent about an hour finding a place to park and had to walk about 15 minutes just to get to the venue.

We stood in line for about another 30 minutes before they announced that the venue was WAAAY over capacity and they weren't letting anyone else in. Now, after spending all the time getting to that point, there was no way in hell we were turning back. We overheard there was going to be an overflow party at a local club and went there instead. Disheveled, we hung out at this club, drinking and doing other, less than legal activities. For the most part the night was pretty good. A lot of the opening acts from the RITM show were making their way to this club so it wasn't a total loss.

Then at some point, Bad Boy Bill himself made his way to the DJ booth where me and my buddy just so happened to be, front and center. Just before he got on the decks, the girl who brought us said she needed to go home. Aarrrggg!! WTF?!!! "It's Bad Boy Bill (circa: Bangin' the Box, btw)" we tried to tell her, but she wasn't having it. In a scramble, we started looking around for someone we knew that would be willing to give us a ride. Luckily, we found someone else who lived in Ft. Hood rather quickly and the night was saved, yay.

So BBB throws it down big time and it ended up being one of the best DJ performances I've seen up to date. Unfortunately, towards the end of the set, some dumbass couldn't handle his illegal activities and ended up in convulsions on the floor and from the looks of it, he wasn't going to make it. Party over.

As were trying to make our way out, the guy that was going to take us back home said there were a couple more people that needed a ride. It was his prerogative, so who were we to complain? Heading out the door we find out that it's actually 5 other people that needed a ride to Ft. Hood. We all begin walking to what we all assumed had to be a minivan, so you can imagine our surprise when we find out it's actually a late model Honda Accord, standard.

Six o' clock in the morning, 1 Honda Accord, 8 cracked out party kids (full grown men), a 1 hour drive ahead of us, and nobody was getting left behind. Since it was a standard, we could only fit two people up front and straws had to be drawn to determine who would be the only person other than the driver to get the front seat (it wasn't me). We were able to fit four in the back seat, rather uncomfortably and one in the floor. But there was still one (we'll call him Little Man) that had nowhere to sit. So we did what any group of cracked out party kids crammed into a Honda Accord like sardines would have done in that situation, we sent him to the trunk with the spare tire.

Off we go.

It is a 1 hour drive, and in perfect harmony with the way the rest of the night went, we get pulled over for speeding, five minutes into the trip. The cop was not amused by our attempt to look out for each other and started yelling at the driver about unsafe it was to drive like that and asked to see his driver's license...

Driver: "Umm...My license is in my backpack right now."

Cop: "Well, where's your backpack?"

Driver: "(Sigh)...In the trunk."

Would you believe it...apparently, cops don't like surprises. I will never forget the look on the guy's face when he opened the trunk and Little Man jumped out like a mortified jack-in-the-box.

Well, if the cop wasn't pissed before, he definitely was now. He pulled all of us out of the car and proceeded to give us the third degree about how stupid it was to travel this way and there was no way he was going let us leave like that. He put three of the guys in the squad car and told the rest of us to follow him to the nearest gas station. When we got there, he told us to use the pay phone and call someone else to pick some of the guys up. I'm not going to go into why that was not an option for us but I will say, it was not going to happen.

The cop drove off as our driver stood at the phone acting like he was using it. We waited a bit while the same cop periodically drove by to check on us to make sure we were complying with his demands. Once we were convinced the cop wasn't coming back anymore, we all piled up in the car once again. Only this time, there was no way in hell Little Man or anyone for that matter was willing to ride in the trunk again. The only place left for him was in the floor of the passenger side front seat. Even worse, the driver was not willing to take the highway again and risk going to jail, so we went the back way.

What would have been a 1 hour drive in a great amount of discomfort, turned into a 2 1/2 hour drive in excruciating discomfort for everyone, including the driver (his seat had to be pushed all the way up and he was well over 6' feet tall).

Hours later, leg cramps and sleeping appendages all around, we finally made it with a new found respect for the phrase "No man left behind".

*Needless to say, the next day I went and put a down payment on my very first car. Money well spent.