Atlanta is VERY hilly. Even the main roads (even the interstates) have some pretty steep hills, and as for surface streets, forget it!
Fortunately we have modified off-road tires on all the vehicles, and all the vehicles are 4WD, because we frequently wind up off road doing retriever training. Because if you drive anywhere in Atlanta, you will hit a steep grade after a few miles, and then with 2WD you are going nowhere fast.
Still took my husband 8 hours to get home. But at least he didn't slide around any.
On that note, see my comment here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3117633/posts?page=127#127