Elizabeth Marquez giving her father, David Jones, a gift on her wedding day. Photo / Stellar Photography
Elizabeth Marquez giving her father, David Jones, a gift on her wedding day. Photo / Stellar Photography
David Jones was on his way to Johnson City, Tennessee, for his daughter’s wedding when traffic came to a screeching halt on Interstate 26.
The reality hit him that he might not make it to his daughter’s big day. The highway was closed after Hurricane Helene’s record stormsurge caused widespread destruction across the US southeast. Jones asked a nearby state trooper if there was an alternate route to get to the city.
“Nobody is getting to Johnson City,” the officer told him around 2am on September 28.
Roads were closed, bridges had collapsed and debris was littered everywhere.
Jones with his daughter in 1991. Photo / Family photo via Washington Post
“My daughter is getting married at 11 o’clock, and I’m going to be there to walk her down the aisle,” he told the state trooper.
Jones had left his home in Boiling Springs, South Carolina around 7pm on September 27 for what is normally about a two-hour drive to Johnson City. He said he wasn’t concerned about the hurricane aftermath - which, in hindsight, he regrets.
“We’ve had hurricanes reach up through here before but by the time they get this far inland, they’re generally just rain events,” he said. “We really didn’t heed the warnings like we should have. … I had no idea what lay ahead.”
About 30 minutes into the drive, there was a major traffic problem.
“It just crawled along at a snail’s pace,” said Jones, who was routed off the interstate several times and got back on when it opened.
“There was closed road after closed road after closed road. I inched my way like this all the way to the state line,” he said. “What would have been an hour and a half drive was seven hours.”
David Jones's shoes during the trek. Photo / David Jones via Washington Post
He was routed off the highway for a final time at Exit 43 in Erwin, Tennessee, which is where he asked the state trooper for directions. The officer told him back roads were washed out and that there was simply no way of getting there.
Jones wasn’t convinced. He parked his car at the bottom of the exit ramp, grabbed his backpack, shaving kit, underwear, socks and a windbreaker - and started walking. He was about 42km away.
“Off I went, with my cellphone light guiding the way,” he said, adding that he did not have cell service for the journey.
It seemed daunting, but he gave himself a pep talk.
“I’ve run marathons. I can do this. I’m going to be there if at all humanly possible,” he told himself. “It wasn’t a question of if, it was a question of getting through it and when.”
Time was ticking, though. And the roads were full of hazards.
“I came to a section where the road was washed out. It was starting to get worse,” Jones said.
David Jones walking his daughter Elizabeth Marquez down the aisle. Photo / Stellar Photography
He reached a massive pile of debris - about 2m - and when he tried to go around it, he stepped in thick mud that swallowed both his feet and legs up to his knees.
“I couldn’t move,” he said.
A backhoe came by to clean up debris, and Jones said he was not visible to the driver. He realised just how close he was to being hit.
“There were some audible prayers at this point,” Jones said.
He kept replaying the same thing over and over in his head: “My daughter is getting married at 11, and I’m going to walk her down the aisle.” It gave him the motivation he needed.
“By the grace of God and a lot of work, I was able to get my right leg out of the mud but it sucked my shoe off and I knew I wasn’t going to make it without shoes,” Jones said.
When both legs were freed, he managed to dig his shoe out and proceeded to crawl on his hands and knees over the debris until he made it to solid ground. He then continued with his trek.
Since there was no cell service, Jones - who moved about a month ago from Johnson City to Boiling Springs - did not have GPS to guide him.
“I was familiar enough with the area, I knew that I needed to stay on that road,” he said.
As Jones was about to reach a town, a state trooper pulled up and offered him a ride to the Erwin Town Hall, about 3km away. He got right in.
“I thanked him and started walking again,” Jones said, adding that he paused briefly to refuel with an energy drink and power bar he bought at a convenience store.
About 26km away from his destination, Jones stepped on to a two-lane highway that leads directly to Johnson City.
He picked up a reflective driveway marker he found on the side of the road and held it during his walk so motorists could see him on the narrow highway.
After another 13km or so of walking, a white pickup truck pulled over, and the man inside offered Jones a ride. In what seemed like a miracle, Jones knew the man, a welcome coincidence in a city of about 72,500 people.
“It turns out, he was a former co-worker from years gone by,” said Jones, who was happy to have a ride for the final 13km stretch. “We had a great time catching up.”
The man dropped Jones off at his home in Johnson City, which he still owns, around 7.30am - 12 and a half hours after Jones left Boiling Springs. He had walked about 27km, and hitched a ride for the other 16km.
He took a short nap, washed up and put on an old suit and shoes he had at the house. Then he made his way to his daughter’s wedding - filled with relief and gratitude. Tennessee station WJHL-TV was the first to report the story.
“It all worked out very well,” said Jones, a father of three girls.
When he walked his eldest daughter, Elizabeth Marquez, down the aisle that day, she had no idea about the turbulent voyage her father took to make it there. During the reception, Jones decided to mention his trek in his toast, and present Marquez, 33, and her husband, Daniel Marquez with the driveway marker he felt protected him during his journey.
“I want this to be a remembrance for you to always be a protector of each other,” he said in his toast.
Marquez was floored by what her father had endured - but not shocked by his resolve to be there.
“It was not surprising to me at all that he would take those measures,” she said. “It was very on-brand for my dad. He would do whatever it takes, no matter what. I’m so grateful that he was delivered safely.”
Marquez said a few other guests at her 45-person wedding also struggled to get there due to poor driving conditions, but no one’s commute was quite as dramatic as her father’s. Power was out at the church, so they used candles to light up the space during the ceremony.
“Especially knowing how much devastation there is, it’s wonderful to know that there is this much love in the world, and we experienced it this weekend with our wedding,” said Marquez, who, like her father, is an engineer. “I’ve always looked up to him, and he’s been my rock and my role model.”
Jones said he stayed focused on his daughter during his arduous expedition.
“I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I really didn’t have any thoughts of not going,” he said. “I don’t think I did anything more than most dads would do on their daughter’s wedding day.”
His daughter feels differently.
“I have a very special dad,” Marquez said. “That was love put into action.”
