Best places to live near Missoula? (insurance, school, living in)

[coloradocutter]

I have reviewed several threads re Missoula. Most were in response to people who were looking to relocate and were open to many places in Montana. I am not. I would be attending graduate school - so it's Missoula or nothing. I have no idea what kind of commute would be reasonable, but if there is anyway that I could avoid living in a valley where it is dreary and grey all the time, I'd be interested in knowing more about that. I live in beautiful, sunny Colorado and know that I will miss the sunshine so badly otherwise.

We have saved alot of money for me to go to graduate school and my program is funded. I fear to even ask what my husband could do there. He was a DEA agent for 10 years and is now a PI with a great business outside of Denver but does have a reduced retirement benefit and health benefits that cover us. If he could make $30k a year, we would be ok on what we have.

Also, generally, any positive comments about Missoula would be interested - everything is so negative!

[jimj]

From what I've seen there isn't very many "good" PI's here and with more people living here and insurance fraud a big thing everywhere he just might do well here staying in that occupation. He could also look into railroad police since the railroad is big here and I think there'd be many large companies here who might want him as a security/safety director. As for the weather, well, from what your needs are I don't think you'll get away from the valley far enough to avoid it.