Never Been To Montana!!!! (Billings, Great Falls: houses, camp, cost)

[SmokinGun]

Originally Posted by seven of nine

Anyone else spend time at Ft. Benning? I went to jump school there, man was it hot, muggy, and I was glad to leave there. I am in NE Montana and I only have experience with the VA in Glendive. Good care, no complaints.

I was there, when I was there is was cold, then hot then muggy, I went in Jan/Feb.

I am a Jump School graduate myself…

Take that weather, and multiply it by two, and that’s where I live!

I agree, I don’t like hospitals, and I try to stay away from them like the plague, but all my injuries need attention from now and then!

[Timberwolf232]

Originally Posted by SmokinGun

I was there, when I was there is was cold, then hot then muggy, I went in Jan/Feb.

I am a Jump School graduate myself…

Take that weather, and multiply it by two, and that’s where I live!

I agree, I don’t like hospitals, and I try to stay away from them like the plague, but all my injuries need attention from now and then!

I've got my wings also, and also did boot at Sand Hill in hot miserable sweaty August!

Coming from the rockies all that humidity and heat was more that I was used too... especially doing PT with all our NBC gear on! (something some might like to forget, but I never will.) I'll also never forget the "fourth" general order.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by Timberwolf232

Thanks for the kind words GLS, although I can't take any credit for being brave. My accident was my own dumb fault and was not a combat injury. Sure was glad to get out of that hospital though!

Yeah, but you were in uniform and the world is an unpredictable place... and your butt could have been laid on the line any time. So you get my salute even if you did kick your own butt.

A friend who was in 'Nam tells this story about a kid in his unit who got nicked by some shrapnel. Happens it was just a flesh wound on the kid's chest. The kid wanted to decline his Purple Heart because his wound was so trivial... until someone pointed out that if it were just ONE INCH DEEPER, he'd have been dead. Sure put it in perspective!!

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by bigtrees

Montana cold is much colder than that. It usually stays around 15 or so during the day east of the Rockies, perhaps a high of 25 - 35 or so west of the rockies. Lows will get down to -20 several times a year east of the Rockies, at least once a year or so west of the Rockies.

I mentioned fingers and toes because that's the part of the body that frostbites most readily for anybody, even those of us in perfect health. Keeping them covered helps to some extend, but they still get very cold in Montana winters (mine frequently went numb in the wintertime).

But visiting is the best way to figure out if you like it, especially visiting in late january to mid feburary.

Where the heck are you that winter is so warm??! Don't think I ever saw a MT winter that didn't reach -45F, and usually more like -65F !! In fact where I lived just east of Belgrade, our normal January daily HIGH was -45F !

And me workin' outdoors (livestock don't stop eatin' just cuz it's too cold for sane people to go outside!) ... do that a while and you sure get good at the bundling up thing. Gloves inside mitts, mickey-mouse boots, and the only visible part of your face is your eyeballs.

[MontanaLaura]

Originally Posted by seven of nine

Anyone else spend time at Ft. Benning? I went to jump school there, man was it hot, muggy, and I was glad to leave there. I am in NE Montana and I only have experience with the VA in Glendive. Good care, no complaints.

The hubby was a jump instructor in (I think) 1961 and has a bunch of qualified jumps. Can't remember exactly and he's sleeping. He always talks about the Marines going thru there and having to do pushups.

What's the VA in Glendive like? Is it just a clinic with one doctor and they refer you elsewhere when more than basics need doing? If so, where do they send you? Glendive is 110 miles from Ekalaka, but all on paved roads. The hubby (3.5 yrs Army) and I (14 yrs active duty AF) used to go to Miles City until they retired the old docs and didn't replace them. Then Xray, EKG and other sections closed down. When they sent the hubby to Ft Harrison to see a neuro doc, which took 3 days/2 nights for an hour appt, we thought it was ridiculous. They could have fee based him to some of the neuro docs in Billings far cheaper! In fact, he was being driven in the DAV van from Billings to Ft H on the morning of 9/11. Imagine hearing it on the radio but not seeing it! The driver and hubby just couldn't comprehend what was happening until they saw it on TV at Ft H.

Since he is Traumatic Brain Injured from 2 work related accidents that occurred in Aug 96, I really needed to go with him (he has a headache & dizziness 24 hrs a day....7 days a week). However, I couldn't go with him on the van because I didn't have an appt and I couldn't get the M.C. doc to send me along with an appt of my own. A stupid "Catch-22". So when we got called by a local guy and told about Ft Meade in Sturgis SD, we made the move in Dec 2001 and have not looked back.

It was a good thing, cause I was having tingling in my hands and right arm constantly. I know the symptoms of carpel tunnel and knew it wasn't that, so the M.C. doc started experimenting on me. I HATE being a guinea pig! By the time we got an appt with Ft Meade a month later, the tingling went to my feet also. It didn't hurt, but it was annoying. Got a doc that wouldn't listen to me, scheduled me for a test that turned out being the carpel tunnel test. I don't do needles, so that made me mad! I asked the greeter at the front desk if I had to keep this doc and he said no, it's not like active duty. He set me up with another doc, but couldn't see him for 10 mths!! When I had some other symptoms....bending my head/neck forward, I get an electrical type shock down my spine and right arm....I asked if there was someone else could see me and my husband at the same time. So I got assigned to his nurse practitioner and the most wonderful person I've ever been treated by! She set me up for a CTScan, done there at the hospital a week later. She called me with the results and had set me up with a neuro doc another week later. All these trips were done by the DAV van out of Baker. Depending on which way they went, sometimes they came directly to my house. After seeing the neuro doc, Doctor Laurie (has a hard to pronounce last name) and telling her what was happening to me, she sent me that same day to Rapid City to the civilian MRI clinic. A week later, I drove myself so I could sell my bum (orphaned) lambs in Newell....25 miles from Ft Meade....and get my diagnosis. Well!!! At the ripe old age of 52, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis! But it's been okay. I see her every 6 mths along with the eye doc (just diagnosed with Glaucoma) and my regular doc. Once a year I get my mammogram and pap test The only thing about going to Ft Meade is it's 150miles with 24 miles of gumbo. I don't mind dirt, but it's harder on the car.

SmokinGun, you might want to consider relocating to SD near Sturgis and Ft Meade. Sturgis is 25 miles from Rapid City. It's pretty with high hills/low mountains and trees. Ft Meade is a full facility with Xray, a traveling MRI machine (serves other VA's), lab, surgery and a nice hospital floor when it's needed, a BUNCH of doctors....cardiac, neuro doc, eye, a parttime dentist ( we don't qualify for that), internist, GP docs, nurse practitioners, pharmacy, physical therapy and if you are from out of town and have to stay overnight (like for a colonoscopy ) they will put you up in a hospital bed. You do your own meds/meals but it doesn't cost anything. The only BAD thing about Sturgis is Bike Week in Aug I like motorcycles, but 100K+ is just too many for me, so I don't go there for the week before, week of and half a week after. Being close to Rapid City, your wife might find a job easier. It's a thought!

MTLaura

[jarsmom]

HI All.
MT native here, live in VA right now, hope to get back someday

[rickers]

On the Flathead reservation the temps in the winter range from 20 above to 40 above.
The only times we get below zero is those one or two times each winter when arctic air comes down from Canada east of the mountains and if it's strong enough it will spill over the mountains and into western Montana. The areas to the south near Bozeman or Butte get much colder mainly because of higher elevation, much more often than areas like Missoula Libby Kalispell etc. The rez is in the center of that so called "banana belt. Kalispell can be a bit colder than the res or the Libby / Troy areas though. If you want to see cold and windy weather check out the high-line in the winter.

[bigtrees]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Where the heck are you that winter is so warm??! Don't think I ever saw a MT winter that didn't reach -45F, and usually more like -65F !! In fact where I lived just east of Belgrade, our normal January daily HIGH was -45F !

And me workin' outdoors (livestock don't stop eatin' just cuz it's too cold for sane people to go outside!) ... do that a while and you sure get good at the bundling up thing. Gloves inside mitts, mickey-mouse boots, and the only visible part of your face is your eyeballs.

Are you including wind chill?

-32 was the coldest I ever day in Montana (without wind chill). Much colder than that if you include wind chill, but I think that's cheating.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by bigtrees

Are you including wind chill?

-32 was the coldest I ever day in Montana (without wind chill). Much colder than that if you include wind chill, but I think that's cheating.

Wind chill is a computation of how the wind and temp feel on bare skin. I stopped running around naked so I don't count it. It has no effect on freezing water, engine blocks, or whatever. But the biggest reason they announce it is because of pets and animals. You and I saved up our big bucks and bought a car with a heater, a house with a furnace and we're lucky enough to have a boss that does heat the building. But our pets suffer if we leave them out. So they constantly remind us of how the weather feels.

[seven of nine]

Originally Posted by rickers

On the Flathead reservation the temps in the winter range from 20 above to 40 above.
The only times we get below zero is those one or two times each winter when arctic air comes down from Canada east of the mountains and if it's strong enough it will spill over the mountains and into western Montana. The areas to the south near Bozeman or Butte get much colder mainly because of higher elevation, much more often than areas like Missoula Libby Kalispell etc. The rez is in the center of that so called "banana belt. Kalispell can be a bit colder than the res or the Libby / Troy areas though. If you want to see cold and windy weather check out the high-line in the winter.

I believe I agree with you on that one.