We don’t get a lot of rain in Wyoming. In some states, people carry umbrellas in their cars, have three or four by the front door, and many businesses loan them out to people in need. We don’t get much call for umbrellas here. Even if we did, our winds would turn them inside-out faster than you can say “freak rainstorm.”
But it does rain here. Sometimes, it rains hard. And being a state that sits a little closer to outer space than most other states, when it does rain, that rain is cold. Thanks to that ever-present wind, though, umbrellas don’t do us much good.
We don’t have to be wet, though. I picked up a set of FroggToggs a few years ago, and these things are wonderful. I’ve only actually worn them a couple of times to keep the rain off me, but when I did, they worked great. They’re lightweight, breathable to some degree, and they’re nearly completely waterproof. When I’m not using them, they roll up and fit easily under the back seat of my truck.
What I use them for more most often, though, is keeping mud off me. Usually, if it rains, I can wait out the storm. Our rainstorms generally don’t last more than a few minutes. But they leave behind a lot of mud. And sometimes, I find myself in a place where mud makes it very difficult to drive back to civilization. To keep the mud off me and out of the driver’s seat of my truck, I pull on those FroggToggs before I jump out to put the chains on the tires.
Let’s face it. You can’t put chains on a tire without getting absolutely covered with mud. But if you have a set of FroggToggs pants and jacket, you can pull them on over your clothes, pop the chains on, and then peel off the FroggToggs and throw them in the truck bed. Voilà. Chains are on, and you’re still clean.
