David:

I can understand how chains have to be used on tires in the mountains with the heavy snows that fall there.

Tire chains used to be legal here in MN and I remember seeing my husband put them on. What a pain they looked like to me - putting them on and taking them off. I guess they did such a number on highways that the State Legislature outlawed them. It's been decades since anyone here used them.

I hope that trip to the Mayo Clinic goes all right. Right now we are escaping all the snowstorms. The radio weather guys are saying we might get flurries tonight but that is no problem. They do warn about "Black Ice though - that is the ice formed on highways and bridge decks by exhaust fumes. Winters here in the Far North can be quite the driving challenge.

Shirley H.