We had a gig at the Uptown Bar & Grille one Friday night, and I went to pick up Aaron near the Steven's area in Minneapolis.
I replaced the radiator a week before, and had just replaced the muffler on my Dodge Omni that day. I was still working on getting my little Omni to shift between more gears than just 3rd and 4th, but it was in pretty good shape. As Aaron was walking up to the car, I decided to show him how quiet my car was, so I reved the engine a couple of times.
Suddenly a gush of liquid came out of the front of the car, and steam started billowing out of the hood. I recognized the smell: antifreeze.
I yelled, "Quick, get in!" I put it into 3rd gear and we sped off. We went a few blocks and the HOT light came on for the engine. Antifreeze steam was billowing out of the heat vents.
All I knew was that we had to make it about five miles in evening Uptown traffic to get to the gig. We both chanted, "Come on, baby," rubbing the dashboard.
Finally, when I thought the engine was going to explode, we got to the driveway of the bar. Hoping inertia would carry us to a spot, I put my foot on the clutch and turned into the drive.
But there, in the driveway, were two Uptown hotties with their noses turned up, walking very slowly through the middle of the driveway. I stopped the car before the incline, and it finally quit.
If you were one of those girls and saw a rusty blue Dodge Omni pulling towards you in the driveway at the Uptown Bar with smoke billowing out of the hood in the summer of 2000, the least you could have done was come to our show.
