It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive from his South Carolina home to Johnson City, Tennessee, for his daughter’s wedding but it turned into seven hours by car and another five and a half hours on foot for David Jones.
After being diverted multiple times on Interstate 26, Jones finally crossed the state line into Tennessee around 2 a.m. There, a state trooper told him that was the end of the road. The interstate and even minor roads were impassible.
I said, “You have to understand. My daughter’s getting married at 11:00 this morning, and I’m going to be there to walk her down the aisle,” Jones said.
Jones has run marathons in the past, but estimated it was less than 30 miles away, so he decided to walk in total darkness with only his cell phone light to guide him through mounds of debris.
“It just … it’s awful,” Jones said. “And I can tell you a lot about the mud and the debris fields where I have to climb six, seven-foot-tall piles of debris of old fences and huge trees and it was just a tangled mess and dead-end roads and all kinds of things.”
His trek nearly became deadly when he encountered crews clearing the road with a backhoe. The operator didn’t see him, and he was nearly hit. He became entrapped in the mud.
“I was up to my knees in mud and couldn’t move,” Jones raid. “And he doesn’t see me. Of course, his cab is facing the other way. Most of the time, he’s swinging this thing around, and I’m ducking. Really, I’m thinking this could be it. There was a lot of prayer at that point.”
Miraculously, Jones said he was able to free himself in time, albeit without one shoe that he had to retrieve afterward, and he continued on his way.
He eventually got back on Interstate 26, still on foot. To avoid being hit by cars Jones carried a reflective stake.
A motorist, who Jones actually knew from a previous job, saw him and drove Jones the last eight miles of his journey, and he made it to his daughter Elizabeth’s wedding on time. She had no idea what her dad had gone through to be able to walk her down the aisle until the reception.
“That’s so emotionally moving [to know] that my dad loves me that much, that he’ll come and go through all of that to get to my wedding and be there on time,” Elizabeth Marquez said.
After the wedding, Jones presented his daughter and her new husband with a token from his incredible journey — his reflective stake.
Jones said he’s no hero. “It’s what any dad would do,” he said.
Elizabeth disagreed and said she’s “just so thankful he made it.”
“I woke up at 4:30 a.m. this morning just wide awake, just spent that whole morning praising God that my dad made it and that my dad’s alive,” Marquez said.
Photo: Neustockimages / E+ / Getty Images