This was my second time driving in Montana. The first was a ski trip to Big Sky so I only got as far east as Missoula and everything was covered in snow. This time it was in 90-100 degree heat and I went ~80% of the way across the state. A few thoughts…
- I was surprised how far the mountains/hills stretched into the state. I thought they stopped around Missoula but there are some decent hills all the way out to Havre and even beyond.
- The speed limits are really fast: 80 on the interstate and 70 on the two lane roads. If you’re going 5 over you probably need to slow down for some of the corners. Don’t count on a corner sign to tell you to slow down.
- Passing is pretty easy on the two lane roads if you encounter someone, but watch out because pretty much everything is a passing zone. Just because you have a dotted line doesn’t meant that there isn’t a dip in the road hiding a car or even a corner.
- Drivers were really courteous. It’s refreshing to get more than a few hundred miles from a coast and see how nice people really can be.
- It’s beautiful! I was sucked in by views that stretched out for many miles across rolling hills full of wheat.
- Growing up in northern Indiana, I felt like I lived out in the country. That phrase has a different definition in Montana. Going across highway 2, we passed more than a few towns that were only marked by a small dirt road heading off into the distance and a green sign indicating that there was a town there somewhere.
- There are a lot of pickups in Montana. I wish I could find a statistic for per capita truck ownership. Montana has to be high up on the list. A lot of those trucks have grille guards on them and it’s not hard to see why with all the dead deer on the sides of roads.
I dream about where I’d live if I had access to plenty of money and didn’t need to make more. Montana is probably in the top 3.