Local man draws national attention for survival story

Two weeks ago musician Louis Rogers was sitting at home in Lakeside preparing for a road trip to Idaho to perform for some friends.

Today, he's home again, but spending his time answering calls from "Good Morning America" and the Associated Press.

Rogers has drawn national attention for his trip to Calder, Idaho, which left him stranded for four days in his Cadillac on a remote road near St. Regis before he was rescued.

More than 200 friends and relatives as well as law enforcement agencies went on the hunt for Rogers on March 11 when he didn't show up for his gig in Calder.

But, they were looking every place but the right place, he said.

Rogers had taken an alternative route to Avery, Idaho, on Gold Creek Road hoping for a shortcut, but several miles in the road conditions deteriorated. He ended up nine miles up the road stuck in a snowbank without cell phone service.

Rogers, whose health problems prevented him from walking out for help, assumed he was done for, unless someone found him.

Rogers said he tried to stay positive and not feel sorry for himself. He performed with his guitar alongside famous country musicians of the 1960s like Merle Haggard and George Jones, and he learned how to fly a plane and operate a train. He was fondly known as "Uncle Lou" by kids who knew him.

"I'm 67 years old. I've lived my life," Rogers said. "I would have liked a little bit longer. The way I look at it there are people out there who don't get this long a life."

Rogers said he was more concerned about the friends he would leave behind and how they would handle his supposed death.

"It's bad enough to lose someone to natural causes opposed to something like this," Rogers said. "What a way to go."

His car kept him warm at nights, but as the days passed, he was getting weaker and weaker. Making it 100 yards was a cause for celebration.

He stopped taking some of his medicines that he knew would dehydrate him more quickly.

"It was hard to even get out of the car to use the restroom," Rogers said.

That's when he started writing his good-bye letter to family and friends Sunday.

"I told them not to go goofy," Rogers said. "This isn't it. There's just no sense living in the first place if that wasn't the case."

He was just about to sign it, when hope arrived around the bend.

"My eyes were as big as two saucers," he said of seeing the car of Scott and Penny Kalis from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, who just happened to decide to go for a Sunday drive up the same road. They got about as far as he did.

"(Scott) said he didn't know why he kept driving," Rogers said. Every so often he'd say the conditions were bad and they should turn around, but didn't.

They asked Rogers what he was doing up there. He said, "Dying" and showed them his letter.

The two took him to St. Regis, where some friends were found to help pull his Cadillac out. After a short drive down the road, the car died. It seemed to live just long enough to keep him warm and alive.

"This world never ceases to amaze me," Rogers said.

Schobers Towing, a St. Regis business, towed out his car for free – with the caveat that Rogers owed them a song.

The first thing Rogers did when he got home was eat. While he's still a little upset that the road wasn't marked as closed if vehicles couldn't get through it, Rogers has since had time to reflect on his experience and his life.

"I've always been a believer," Rogers said. "When I was sitting up there, I was thinking there were some mistakes in my life I wish I could change. I've mostly been on the straight and narrow. I told the Lord, 'Lord, don't let me sit up here and die like this and let all these people know how crazy I was to be up here in the first place.'"

Rogers has a new-found sense and desire to give back after the experience.

"Anything I can do for anybody, I'll do," he said. "It seems like what goes around comes around. When I needed help, I got it."

He's especially appreciative of his friends.

"All my friends got me out of this mess," he said. "I'd rather have friends than money."

Rogers plans to keep living in Lakeside and making music.

"I'm going to sit up here and make records," he said. "The good Lord has given me another chance at life… I'll probably clean up my mouth a little bit."