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.