It's Almost Tire Chain Time, Again

Last year, my husband and I had to attend a funeral 400 miles from home just before Thanksgiving. According to a relative who lived there, the weather hadn't been bad, and the hiways were clear so, 3 days before the funeral, off we went.

Our pickup had always done well in snow, but it was no match for the two mountain passes we encountered on that trip. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in the area, the hiways were no longer clear, and the snowplows were slowly---very slowly making their way up the mountain. People had stopped at every wide spot in the road to put on tire chains or snow tires, but we, based on our relative's weather report, hadn't bothered to bring either.

Since we live on the milder side of our state and usually only need snow tires for a couple of days each winter, if that much, I didn't know anything about tire chains. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have known a tire chain from a dog chain if someone had shown it to me, but that was prior to our little journey over the mountains.

Before we reached our destination, which was a motel in LaGrande, Oregon, we had skidded so many times that I expected another funeral--a double one for us this time--would be scheduled by our family in the near future, but, miraculously, we arrived in one piece, or maybe I should say, two pieces--him and me.

I can tell you that I never want to experience a trip like that again...especially the part where an 18-wheeler zoomed past us, and then suddenly slowed down to a crawl. If you've ever tried to brake in the snow, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, early the next morning, my husband ventured out to buy some tire chains and didn't come back for 6 hours. It seems that everyone else in town had the same idea. He did end up with a set, one that didn't fit well, but it was the only set he could find that came even close to fitting our pickup.

I'm sure we raised some eyebrows with our misfitted tire chains as we rattled into the parking lot of the church where the funeral was held the next morning, but we didn't care--at least we didn't have to brave the mountains on the way back with bare tires.

If you don't already have a set of good tire chains stored in the trunk of your car, think about getting them now, before the need arises. If you can't find them locally, check out http://tirechaindealer.com/ to find a set online and be prepared. (They would make a great gift for the man in your life, girls.)