Yesterday while on our way home from a two-day trip the hood of our 1999 GMC Yukon Denali SUV got hit with a gust of wind from a passing truck and ballooned.
The hood actually separated. The framework stayed latched and the sheet metal top pulled up making a diamond shape while remaining attached at the sides. Because it stayed attached at the sides it was prevented from flipping up over my windshield. It just tented in the middle allowing me to still see where I was going mostly on the far left of the windshield.
I was doing 70 mph at the time and the was no other traffic for the couple of minutes it took me to pull off the side of the road.
My husband Jerry got out to see what happened and pushed the hood back down as far as it would go. I didn't get a picture of it while the gap was diamond shaped and was at the top of the windshield.
 |
| The hood separated. |
We were 10 miles from the nearest town (Harlowton MT). After some debate, I convinced him it wasn't an option due to how windy it was. I didn't want it blowing into the windshield or for it to become a kite and carry him off. We called our insurance and they said the only thing they could do was send a tow truck. The nearest town didn't have one and the next town (Lewistown) that did was about 68 miles away and we'd have to wait over 2 hours for a truck to get to us.
We decided to just drive it the 10 miles to Harlowton. The fastest I could go was 15 mph to keep the hood from ballooning up very much and the wind blowing towards us didn't help either. Another good gust caught it and I had to stop so Jerry could push it back down again.
I crept down the shoulder of the road with my 4-way flashers on and pulled off even farther when any traffic would need to pass me.
We made it without incident (at least not anymore) to the first gas station and bought a set of ratchet straps. We hooked a couple to the windshield end of the hood and down to the tow loops (eyes, brackets or whatever they are called) near the bottom of the bumper and ratcheted them down tight.
I drove the remaining 130 or so miles home without it budging at all. We are very grateful we weren't injured or worse due to this freak incident. The insurance people have never heard of this happening either.
I have another week and a half of travel before I will be home long enough to get it fixed, but the insurance adjuster will meet me in Missoula mid-week while I am there.
I guess I will chalk this up to another chapter in my crazy life, it wasn't our time to go home and we had divine help.
Sometime, I will have to tell you about the time the luggage rack with all of our stuff on it ripped off the top of our car while passing through Nevada on our way home to California from vacationing in Montana and a passing policeman had to stop traffic on the freeway so we could gather all of our stuff up. At first he just stood there with his mouth open trying to wrap his brain around what he was seeing.
Or the time when again we were traveling home to California, from vacationing in Montana and we wound up spending the night at the police station, in the training room, on the mats with our sleeping bags and pillows.
Good times... lol
Carolyn
