My friend, Andrew, contacted me yesterday morning inquiring if I wanted to go to Fall Creek. I'd never been, so I decided to put my phone on the charge and get some charge before heading out. Andrew showed up about 12:00 PM at my place and we headed out. After getting to Big Fall Creek Road, the weather was looking good. We kept going forward for a bit, and passed a 'Pavement Ends' sign. The gravel gave us traction and we kept moving forward. Eventually, it got bad enough Andrew wanted to turn around. So he kicked his Escape into reverse to back up until he found a safe spot to turn his car around. At this point we backed up into a trench/ditch like thing. I got out to examine the situation and saw a wheel was off the ground. Andrew tried to maneuver his car to fix the situation, but it didn't quite work. Instead the Escape basically was now tilting fully sideways into it. I think this was about 1:00PM or 2:00PM. We, in a hurry to find help left it and started walking back. Andrew and I tried to send text messages and call 911 but to no avail. However one of Andrew's messages went through, sort of. It didn't say it hadn't sent. I'm a big guy, as most of you know, so icy and snowy roads was not easy for me to maneuver on by foot. I have a knee that unbuckles from beneath me, which is why I generally avoid stairs. I kept falling down, hard. I can't count how many times I fell. But at I want to say close to 4:45PM, I decided to tell Andrew to tread ahead of me and get help. He could move faster and not have to worry about me. I waited where that was for a bit until about 5:15PM then started moving on my own a bit, continuing falling and struggling to stay warm. I would move myself to a safe spot on the side of the road and try to stay warm by ducking into my shirt and curling up. I'm very thankful for the Christmas gift Varon Drachios got me, a hat, because it helped so much. When resting like this I would nearly fall asleep so I would force myself to jump up and continue walking. This action repeated only god knows how many times. My phone, with no signal, functioned as a flashlight. At one point, at 50% battery the device turned off and said it needed to charge. This couldn't be correct. But it would not turn on. So I made my way in pitch black darkness for a bit, about half an hour or so, before trying to turn it back on. Which it did. Again the process repeated of crashing on the side of the road, near bridges, etc. Once I got back on pavement traveling was a lot easier. After one time of relaxing, I hopped up and started walking and saw lights coming. Thank god! A car! I was freezing cold, soaking wet. Had ate snow for water. It was bad. I thought I was going to die. But thank god, lights! The jeep stopped and as I'm explaining who I am and asking if they had passed my friend, they tell me they are Andrew's parents. The fact they didn't pass him worried me. We turned around for a bit and get signal. No word from Andrew and we get more worried. We turn around and travel up to where the car was stuck and couldn't quite make it so turned around again. Search and Rescue pinged Andrew's phone and saw at about 8:00PM (remember those messages we sent? That's when they actually sent out. The current time of being found by his parents was close to 10:00PM). They said the phone pinged near us at that time. orioneisbaer shows up with boozledoof to take me from there to the ER to get checked out. I get in Tom's car, curl up with blankets and try to warm up once more. Tom decided to go with Andrew's parents to check where the phone pinged. Thank god they found him in an outhouse. He had found a dry sleeping bag and had curled up with it to stay warm.
With us both found and safe, Tom and Leo made their way to take me to the ER to get me checked out. My legs, knees, feet, all sore. I can barely walk, and when I do I'm trembling. The impact from falling so much, and walking so far pretty much overdid them. I'm hoping to be able to walk fully soon without struggling but only time will tell. I am currently at home, and doing fine. Andrew is also okay. Again, thank you everyone for your concerns. I truly thought I was not going to make it and I was going to die on the side of the road several times last night. If I had passed out they probably wouldn't of found me in time. I love you all and I have a new appreciation of life.