Anyone else here in Montana find themselves driving a lot?

[SnowSand]

We live up a winding dirt road about 10 miles outside of our small town. Helena is an hour away and Bozeman a little less than an hour and a half. When we built, we put in an ice machine, a commercial two door refrigerator and a two door freezer. Built a nice walk-in pantry too. Plenty of room to stock up and not have to make those long drives for supplies very often.

[Montana Griz]

Originally Posted by SnowSand

We live up a winding dirt road about 10 miles outside of our small town. Helena is an hour away and Bozeman a little less than an hour and a half. When we built, we put in an ice machine, a commercial two door refrigerator and a two door freezer. Built a nice walk-in pantry too. Plenty of room to stock up and not have to make those long drives for supplies very often.

How about Power Outages?........When I built my home (35 yrs ago), the Electric Power and the Phone Line had to be brought in from a point 3950 feet from my property line and across a major 40 foot wide creek that feeds into the Bitterroot River. During the first 10 years here, we had frequent power outages. So I bought a 10,000 KW Generator as back up.

Have you had similiar problems and what size generator do you have?

[37221to59870]

Originally Posted by hymnsinger

I was looking at the map where my hope-to-be ranch is, and it's at least an hour in any direction to the grocery store! LOL Where does one get gas and a soda around here!? Wait, is it soda or pop in Montana? Does anyone know if there is a convenience store in Broadview? No, seriously. I was on Google street view in Broadview trying to figure that one out.

I'm no stranger to rural living, but rural in the South and rural in Montana are two different things! The furthest I've lived from a major town was 40 miles, but where I lived that was 40 minutes. NO ONE drove less than 65 and most did 75/80 in those parts. If we didn't, we wouldn't have gotten anything done! Google maps is telling me it's 1 1/2 hrs (~30 miles) to Billings, and 1 hour (~15 miles) to Roundup. I suppose that's based on the grade roads I would have to travel.

My most challenging rural driving was deep in the Appalachian mountains of NW NC. I drove my son to school every day, 17 miles and about 45 minutes one way. We were on the tail end of the bus route, and if he rode the bus, he had to be up at 5 AM and at the bus stop at 5:45 for a 2 1/2 hour bus ride. No way was I going to allow that! If I didn't pick him up, he wasn't home until 5:45 PM. Now that's rural living!

Broadview is 30 miles outside Billings. It is on a modern highway (MT hwy 3) and you can be to the city in less than 30 minutes. The last time I was there it had a bar, a post office and a school. I can't recall if it had a convenience shop. It is 15 miles from Lavina which is the Junction for U.S. Highway 12 to the north. Billings is to your south but it is a normal 70-75 mph drive.

[volosong]

My lady friend lives on a small ranch about eight miles north of Three Forks. Yeah, she drives a lot. She works at the airport in Belgrade and frequently drives to watch her grandkids participate in sports. She wears out cars pretty quickly.