My near-death experience (kind of)

While I was about to leave from Ann Arbor to Chicago today, I was joking with my roommate Brian, who was coming with me, that he was going to be in for more than he bargained for. It turns out that I was right – a little too right.

It all started when we pulled into the Meijer gas station, and I opened the front hood of the car to put in wiper fluid. After placing in the fluid, I closed the hood lightly where it seemed shut. You see, my hood latch is abnormal, so one cant just slam the door shut.

Well, everything seemed fine, until I was 15 miles outside of Ann Arbor when my hood started to shake slightly. I pulled off to the shoulder, only to find that my latch was broken. I still have no idea how it happened, but it did. There was no way to close my hood. After fooling around with it in while the truck whizzed and the snow fell, I decided to drive about a quarter-mile to the next exit and pull over.

About two seconds later, the hood flew open (which, by the way, is NOT COOL), I pulled over again, and Brian went in from the passenger side to slam the hood. The hood shook slightly under I pulled into a Farmer Jack parking lot. There we learned the hydraulic thing that holds the hood up broke, so now the thing can’t really open or close.

Brian and I then went to the hardware store and got lots of duct tape, and then we taped the hood of the car.

So now I sit here in Ann Arbor – and not where I should be. We’re going to give driving to Chicago, duct taped hood and all, tomorrow morning. Wish us luck.