This is a continuation of the epic tale of my trip to Knoxville and Atlanta. Read Part 1 here.

So…we left Sevier Heights Baptist at 11:30, arriving at Emily’s neighborhood sometime around midnight. We were greeted by standing water. My rental car was already puckered with hail-sized dents, so I wasn’t about to try driving the car through. Not to mention the fact that my mom had already sent me a Facebook reminder to never drive through standing water. So, we kicked off our Chuck Taylors, rolled up our jeans, and walked through what we would term the “marsh of the alligators.”

At this point, we were already entertaining the idea of heading to Atlanta that night. Nina’s breakouts weren’t starting until 11am, but I had learned that my youth group buddy Taylor Royle was going to be speaking at some point during the earlier opening session. Since Emily and I are both night people, it just made sense to start moving southward on I-75. Maybe go halfway. Or stop an hour north of Atlanta. Now…later in the evening, Emily would question the wisdom of our choice. So let me just explain why this plan made sense at midnight. If we started towards Atlanta, we could stop at a hotel at 2 in the morning. And then sleep until about 7 the next day and still get to Orange on time. Otherwise, we would be getting up in Knoxville at like 4 am and be driving into unknown debris and traffic problems caused by the tornadoes. Plus, my car was already practically on the street because of the flood anyway.

So, we pack it back into the car and start heading south on I-75. I will now try to summarize in bullet points:

• Chapter 1: No Gas.  About 1.5 hours down the road, I realize I need gasoline. Badly. At this point, it’s about 2 in the morning. I stop at an exit with 5 gas stations listed and numerous restaurants. Nothing is open. I go to the next significant exit. Gas station is open. Pumps are decorated with bright yellow signs informing us there is no gas. And the nice attendant told us the further south we drove the worse it would be. He recommended heading back north. I’m guessing I might be able to get another 30 miles out of this thing.
• Chapter 2: No Gas, No Hotel. Well, we didn’t make it as far as we wanted, but we might as well just bunk down for the night. There were a bazillion hotels so we had our pick. Three hotels later, we are informed that there are no vacancies at that exit.
• Chapter 3: Gas, No Hotel. So we turn the car north. Back towards Knoxville. We stop at the first exit that appears to have a gas station that is open. And they have gas. SUCCESS!!  Now, we just have to find a hotel. Hampton Inn- nothing. Super 8- the front desk attendant is asleep and drooling on the desk. The news: no vacancies anywhere at that exit, either. So we turn our eyes south once again towards Atlanta.
• Chapter 4: I-75 is Closed. Emily informs me, “Oh by the way, I-75 is closed at Ringgold. Thank goodness for Maegan Stout and her Christmas present. The Garmin navigated us around the closure. It’s now somewhere in the neighborhood of 4am.
• Chapter 5: A New Strategy. Well, 4am is just too late to get a hotel at this point. Let’s just muscle it all the way to Atlanta and see if the NCC kids team will let us borrow their showers. Are you hungry? Yeah. Okay, let’s just go to their hotel. Wait, where is their hotel? We have no idea. Emily and I got a hotel room close to the conference site. Where were the NCC girls? No. Clue. Stop off at the Waffle House. Pop open the computer and look through the email archives to see if we can figure out where they are. Emily asks, “Why did we think this was a good idea?” Shut up, Emily. It made perfect sense at the time. We get the coordinates of the hotel. Well, we got the name and address. Plug that into the Garmin and keep driving. We get to the exit of their hotel, text Jenilee to ask if we can crash their room later in the morning when they are done getting ready, and head to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. They are open at 6am, right? Oh yeah, and we’ve had no sleep.
• Chapter 6: The Wrong Hotel. Emily and I finish our breakfast. And everything seems to be funny. We go to the NCC kids team hotel and just crash in the lobby, catching up on emails, tweets, facebook, and tornado news. About an hour later, Jenilee texts us their room number.  We knock on the door. No answer. The curtain was slightly opened, so I peered in. Back to texting: Are you sure you are in Room 102? Um…yeah…but Room 102 at the Comfort Suites not the Comfort Inn. The Comfort Suites which has the same address and is just tucked behind the Comfort Inn. Yeah, that one.

The rest of the day was great. We got to hear Taylor rock out the platform at Orange. Nina did an amazing job at her breakouts. I got to hang out with the pastor from my church in high school. Great dinner at Jim and Nick’s. Kicked lots of young youth pastor butt at Dave and Buster’s.  Got to bed around midnight. Awesome 42 hours. 42…straight…hours. I slept well…