The winter of 2014 was quiet an experience for me, especially when January the 29th hit. Mostly, because me and one of my friends was one of the thousands of people stranded on the interstate miles from home and no way to get to my fathers place of work. First off, I was at home January the 28th and we had just got the news that it was probably going to snow the next day. So I and my family carried on as normal because we did not figure things would get that bad.
But unfortunately my diabetic father had to work nights that night, so he went on to work as normal. His work carries him all the way to Alabaster in Shelby County. Later, the next morning I woke up and turned on the news an seen the whole state of Alabama pretty much paralyzed by this winter storm. I had also noticed I had some missed calls and a text message from my father telling me he did not have his insulin and another to stay off the roads. So I called him and asked him if he could make it home or to the hospital nearby.
Which he could not because the plants roads were frozen due to the abundance of water that runs through it. So to avoid an argument I took it upon myself to take him his insulin along with some food and other supplies for the people there. One of my good friends and I loaded my truck down with supplies a cooler of drinks, some propane heaters, blankets pillows, and some MRE’s. After we finished that we hit the road. We started off heading down 145 and taking some back roads till we got to the Shelby airport exit.
We had to get off there because the roads had started to get to rough so we tried our luck with the interstate which run out really quick. After we got off the exit we made it about 300 yards and were stuck. Me and my buddy was stranded with the other thousands of people, but at least we did not have far to go. Granted that, we got stuck we decided to just go ahead and walk the rest of the way. So we grabbed our gear and started walking. This was the worst part of the whole trip. Not because of the walk, but because we were so abundantly supplied.
The other people were not prepared so they were harassing us for what we had, and we had to keep telling them no and to leave us alone. Then a couple come up to us carrying there two year old granddaughter with them. So we allowed them to come along with us because at this point we did not have but about two miles left to go. So for the next hour and a half we walked until we reached my fathers work. We were so happy when we got there. They were to because of the stuff we had brought.
Me and my friend had single handedly brought the much needed supplies to my fathers work but most importantly his insulin with the last minute help from the three strangers. At last, we were finally done, we had walked a little over eight miles to get to my fathers work and we were exhausted. We all spent the next forty-eight hours completely content and problem free except for the urgency to get back to our vehicles and homes. For my friend and me we felt proud because we had completed a journey which was a life experience that neither of us will ever forget.
