I figured it out. And yes, I beat my head against the wall, because in the daylight it's obvious.
In the dark, I couldn't see that you could push the levers towards the center of the two crossbars, so I was trying to pull them out (towards the center of the car) or towards the outside of the crossbars. I looked at it in the daylight, saw that it could pivot towards the center, and unlocked the front bar.
Now, I just have to put something over the bike pedals (I'm thinking old socks or something) and anchor it down. It only has to travel about 1 mile or so to the bike shop. There, I'll be purchasing a bike carrier and using that to take it everywhere else (which was the reason for part two of my original question).
Why don't I purchase the bike carrier first, you're thinking? Because the bike is a hand-me-down from a friend (who rebuilt it) and it may not be worth the cost to make the fixes that he couldn't do. Either way, I needed to know how to move the luggage crossbars, so this works out perfectly.
Have a great day and thanks for the replies.
Patrick.