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.