The Hottest of Messes - Part IV (Or, Stuck in St. George)

As it turns out, the problem with Club PrezPotts was not just a tube. It was the transmission.

We found out early Monday morning after Andrew called the auto repair shop. We all immediately pulled out our phones to look at car rentals.

Online, our prospects didn't look so bleak. It looked like we could pick up an economy car in St. George and drop it off four hours later in Orem. No big deal. And all for a total of $65 including the underage fee. We started calling places to make reservations.

This process took from about 9 am to noon. Places wouldn't answer their phones. We called several places multiple times only to be told that they could help us out... tomorrow.

Apparently there were only two cars in all of St. George that were available for rent. Oh, and they wouldn't allow us to drop the car off in Orem; We'd have to find a way to get it back to St. George, so we'd also have to rent it out for a week. And it wouldn't be available until 4 pm.

We decided that this was really our only option if we wanted to be back in Provo that day. We reserved the car for 4 pm, went to lunch, and took naps. Not too bad of an afternoon.

The car was a Dodge Charger and the price came to about $344. After an hour at the rental place we stopped by the repair shop to grab some stuff that we optimistically left in Andrew's car and headed out to the freeway.

The trip back to Provo was MUCH longer than the trip down to St. George. First of all, a good fourth of the way was reduced to one lane. Second, we were completely reliant on the radio for any kind of music. There was actually a point where we pressed the scan button and it circled through all of the stations several times before we got reception again. There was some conversation, but really we were all pretty tired and aggravated and just wanted to be home.

Do misunderstand- we're all still friends. There were no angry words or hurt feelings, we all just needed to get out of that car. I don't think I've ever been that excited to be back in Provo.

As I write this, Club PrezPotts is on its way back to Provo. My family is coming up from Phoenix this weekend and my brother agreed to pick the car up from the shop and drive it up. They'll take the Charger back down on Sunday.

Personally, I don't regret the trip at all. It's kind of a shame that the trip will forever be referred to as "The Hottest of Messes", because it was a blast and just the vacation I needed.

I can't speak for everyone else, but when I look back on The Hottest of Messes it will be a good memory.

The Hottest of Messes - Part III (Or, It's Probably Just a Tube)

The day started out perfectly. We slept in, woke up at our leisure, and ate some breakfast. Andrew went to visit his aunt while the rest of us hung out by the pool tanning, reading, and swimming. After packing and showering we ate some lunch and by 3 pm we were all in the car ready to go.

About 20 minutes out of St. George, right as I-15 merges into two lanes, Club PrezPotts started to slow down even though Andrew hadn't let up on the accelerator at all. We pulled over to the side of the road and that's when Kevin noticed white smoke coming from under the hood.

The boys got out to look at the engine, mostly because that's just what you do. None of us really knows anything about cars. Kevin told us that there was something leaking, but they didn't know what. We all started calling dads and uncles when a semi pulled over to the side of the road and started backing up towards us. A really kind guy got out to see if he could help. After checking a few things he said, "It might just be a tube or something, but you've leaked oil all over your breaks so you should probably call a tow."

With a semi-diagnosis and a plan, our moods improved. After calling a tow and establishing the hashtag #hottestofmesses on twitter (which you should all check out), we preceded to watch Arrested Development on my phone in an effort to distract from the fact that we were sitting in 104 degree heat on the side of the freeway.

Once the tow truck arrived (about an hour later) we realized a major planning error. The truck only had one passenger seat. How were we supposed to get back to St. George? The driver told us that he could legally take us to the next exit where we could wait for someone to come pick us up.

All I heard when he said that was: You get to ride in a car on the back of a two truck!!!

I'm not sure why this was so exciting to me, but Alex and I immediately got out our phones to document the incident.

Once the car was loaded on the truck, the driver told Andrew to put the car in park and that he should probably put the emergency break on for good measure.

"I'm not sure the emergency break even works," Andrew decided to reassure us as the truck took off.

I'm don't know exactly what legal obligations the driver was under, but he dropped us off at the next exit with civilization. The very next exit after he picked us up was really just a dirt road. We waited at a Texaco off the exit to New Harmony, UT. There were picnic tables outside of this gas station. We decided to wait there instead of inside the building which frankly smelled like a septic tank.

After a while, Andrew's aunt came to rescue us. By 7 pm we were back in St. George at my aunt's house. We knew we would need to stay one more night. We all made phone calls, assuring parents we were okay and getting work off. We had full confidence that Club PrezPotts would be good as new by tomorrow. I can't tell you how many times the phrase, "It's probably just a tube or something" was said. Not that any of us knew what that meant, we just knew that the helpful trucker had said that and it sounded like a minor problem.

We joked about having an extra day of vacation and tried not to expect the worst.

So, of course, the worst happened.

The Hottest of Messes - Part II (Or, Acrophobia)

It's probably been made clear at this point that our planning skills were not exactly stellar during this trip. Friday night we made our plans to go to Zion's after Kevin suggested we do the Narrows. Thankfully we didn't just leave it at that and actually looked up the Narrows to see exactly what that entailed.

Turns out, it entails wading some 16 miles through the Virgin River; a task we obviously weren't prepared for. So we decided to tackle Angel's Landing, a hike Kevin had done twice before.

As the shuttle bus drove us through the park, the automated tour guide described the beauty of each hike as we approached the trailhead. When he began describing Angel's Landing, he began to use words like "treacherous", "steep", and "reconsider".

No really. He said, "Reconsider if anyone in your party feels uncomfortable."

As any group of twenty-somethings would do, we laughed about it and headed up anyway.

For those of you who haven't done Angel's Landing, the last third of the hike has chains welded into the rock for you to use as you basically scale the mountain to the summit.

Kevin had mentioned this to us but hadn't really explained what we were signing up for. After endless switchbacks we saw a chain and used to to climb up to a flat area, which I will forever refer to as "Fake Angel's Landing". I looked over the side and was met with the sight of an extremely high and steep cliff.

"Holy crap," I said. Andrew was right behind me. I said, "check this out."

Andrew then proceded to lay flat on the rock and edge himself slowly to the side. He peeked over, said, "oh," and then sat in the middle.

"Wait," I said, "are you afraid of heights?"

"You didn't know that?"

I considered the irony of him making us wait in the desert while he attempted to climb the rock in Snow Canyon that he called "The Cliffs of Insanity", but I let it go.

After sitting there for a few minutes, I noticed people walking around on the much-higher cliff next to the one where we were perched. I pointed this out to the rest of the group, wondering how they even got up there.

"That's where we're going," Kevin said.

"What?"

"That's Angel's Landing."

Andrew didn't like this revelation. "Tell me you're kidding, Kevin."

So we proceeded to finish the hike we though we had already finished. Andrew went first, then Kevin, then Alex, then me. While we climbed we kept hearing Kevin laugh.

"What are you laughing at?" Alex asked.

"Andrew keeps swearing under his breath."

It didn't take us too long to get to the real Angel's Landing. The view was incredible.

The view from "Fake Angel's Landing"

Once we arrived back at the trailhead, we decided to go check out the Narrows. We waded around in the river for a while, talked about coming back some other weekend to complete this hike, and then headed back to the house.

It was a really awesome day, at least I think so, and we had a chill evening enjoying what we thought would be our last night in St. George.

The Hottest of Messes - Part I (Or, That One Time We Almost Died)

Our quick weekend trip to St. George began Friday morning at 6. I'm super impressed that we all got out of bed that early without the help of our mothers.

But whose car to drive? Alex's needed an oil change. Kevin had driven to and from California the week before. This left mine or Andrew's, and Andrew's let us hook up our iPods to the stereo. The choice was obvious and we took the vehicle that we lovingly call "Club PrezPotts."

This innocent, but ill-fated decision wouldn't come back to bite us in the butt until Sunday, but more on that later.

We arrived in St. George at about 10 am. The forecast was a scorcher, but so far the day didn't seem to bad. After stopping by my aunt's house to drop of luggage and change, we grabbed some breakfast and Powerade (on sale at Albertson's- $5 for 12!!) and headed to Snow Canyon.

Fully hydrated and rested, our first hike in Snow Canyon was quite enjoyable. We headed back to the car to replenish our water supply and then went to find the caves.

This was also awesome since they were cool and out of the sun.

Andrew decided he wanted to go hike up a really high peak he had seen on their last trip to St. George near Three Ponds. But instead of going back to the car for more water, we headed straight there which turned out to be stupid.

Once we got to Three Ponds we found a patch of shade, an incredibly rare find at 1 pm. Alex, Kevin, and I were all ready to head back to the car, but Andrew wouldn't be stopped. Kevin went with him, and Alex and I waited in the shade.

Our view from the shade

Soon, Alex had a headache and I was getting nauseous. Our phones had no signal and the wind was picking up, blowing hot air and sand into our shady hide out. Despite all this, we managed to keep it together while watching Tangled on my phone.

That's when the bee showed up.

Alex saw it first and jumped up, prepared to run away. It landed on her back and she stayed perfectly still. "Do you want me to hit it with my shoe?" I asked.

"Yeah, but first get it off my back."

"But then it'll come after me!"

Then the bee lost interest in Alex and landed on my shoulder. Our exchange continued, with reversed roles, until the bee flew back to Alex and the cycle continued.

This went on for a good 10 minutes, all with Tangled playing in the background. Finally the bee flew away, right as we heard the boys coming back.

We hastily returned to our original spots in the shade, and continued to watch the movie like nothing happened. No need for them to know that we were having total come-aparts in their absence.

I don't know what happened with them. All we know is that Kevin eventually convinced Andrew that there was no way to the top. Honestly- where would we be without KHolt?

Note: I want you all to remember Andrew's persistence in wanting to hike to the highest point around so that you can fully appreciate the irony that will be in tomorrow's post. 

Now all that remained was to find Club PrezPotts. It took us about 20 minutes to find the road, and then about 10 more minutes to get to the car. We could see it in the distance, and all I could think about was what if the car vanished when we got to it, like a mirage? It seemed like a real possibility what with us trudging through the desert in 105 degree heat and all being dehydrated.

Luckily, it was the real car. We all downed bottles of warm Powerade, went back to the house, swam, showered, and then went out for some Mongolian BBQ.

We watched TV until we fell asleep, ready to head to Zions the next day.