It was not just snow.

My grandfather, born in 1900, told us stories about driving early automobiles up roads in the mountains of Kentucky where many times the “road” was the creek.

His father used mules and oxen to haul steam engine powered core drills to remote regions, and routinely had to wait for heavy rains to raise water levels enough for steamboats to get as far up the creeks as possible - a kind of combination of white water rafting and off roading tons of equipment.

My grandmother was named for a steamboat that at the time was the longest that could navigate the sharpest turns in the Big Sandy River.

This grandmother also mis-set the ignition timing on an early automobile, causing the engine to “kick back” as her older sister hand cranked it - breaking the sister’s arm.

History kind of repeated itself 53 years later when one of my brothers broke his younger brother’s arm when a tractor moved un-expectantly.

I carry cable chains but it has been years since I actually had to put them on.

I used to drive the West Virginia Turnpike frequently in winter and WVa Troopers would set up check points and force you off the Turnpike if you did not have chains.