The Great Outdoors
In 2014, ice covered everything in South Alabama during the dark of the night before, and just as He promises, the sun blanketed the entirety of the landscape the following day. With no power, we retreated to the den because it was heated by a wood burning fireplace. With three young girls squirming about, it didn’t take long for cabin fever to set into that little room. Sparked by memories from nearly 20 years prior at Montevallo, Hannah and I both had the same idea about getting some relief. “Bay… Cape…” I commanded with exuberance, “Get bundled up. We are going on an adventure!” Hannah was already gathering clothes for toddler Banks, and I scurried off to get suited up, too.
“One leg, and then the other,” I reminded myself, as my near frozen brain wanted nothing more than to put both feet in my Long Johns at the same time. Looking back, I often refer to that memory when I need to remind myself that God does things in His time… and when we try to do them in our time, we usually topple to the ground. “You okay?” Hannah shouted from the other room. No doubt, she heard my fall… “I’m fine, I just got tangled up in my Long Johns.” I’m pretty sure I heard her giggle at that point, but I was too cold to protest. Twenty minutes later, we were sitting in our old golf cart… a trusty rusty that had at least a million miles on the same set of tires… with a rope tied to the rear bumper, and on the other end of the rope, an innertube! I made two quick circles around the cul-de-sac and felt I’d mastered the mechanics of driving a golf cart on the ice… and that doesn’t allow credit for time spent driving during the “Storm of the Century” in 1993 at Montevallo.
Television news meteorologist James Spann aptly named it so… a young up and comer at the time, Spann warned that warm air from the Gulf of Mexico would clash with a frigid cold front crashing down from the artic, and the result would be rain as far south as Honduras and snow just about everywhere north of Mobile. Spann had warned us for days… but being young and impetuous college students, we opted to stay on campus. Temperatures in the single digits turned snow covered roads to ice, and, soon enough, we were using a friend’s Jeep to tow Conga lines of puffy jacketed, mitten wearing coeds on cafeteria trays down “Thrill Hill” in front of the President’s House. University of Montevallo (UM) President Robert McChesney later suggested to me that “They’ll be finding cafeteria trays in the city’s gutter system for years to come.” I think he was right!
Confident from my once a decade experience driving on ice, I told Bay and Cape to “hold on tight!” Likewise, Hannah clutched tight to Banks in the seat next to me. We made a few circles around the cul-de-sac and a run or two down an adjacent dirt road, and all I heard was laughter and revelry from the caravan that followed close behind. Hannah and I both grinned from ear to ear… relishing both the joy of what is and the fondness of the Montevallo memories of what was…
When our cheeks were bright red, and our lips numb from the tingle… we retreated back to the warmth of the fireplace. Certainly, our days at UM taught us lessons outside of the classroom. And clearly, God had a planned way back when… but how little did we know that He was preparing the way for us as parents and as partners in the Storm of the Century all those years ago.
-Walt Merrell
A Christian Outdoorsman who writes of his adventures with his family, with the hope that others might be inspired and encouraged to embrace God’s tapestry, otherwise known as the great outdoors, as a means of finding Common Ground. You can follow him at Shepherding Outdoors on FB, YT and IG and at shepherdingoutdoors.com. His most recent book is available at shepherdingbook.com. Read his faith story at www.BirminghamChristian.com.
