Driving in Montana is such a treat

The lengths to which I’ll go have increased immensely.

Barb and I took a trip to town yesterday. Although we live smack dab in the middle of one, with a population less than 2,000, Malta doesn’t always offer what we need.

Billings, 200 miles to the south, usually does. We’ll drive down there without giving it a second thought.

My family didn’t travel like that when I was a kid. I grew up in Evansville, a Billings-size city in southern Indiana. It had everything we wanted so there was no need to go elsewhere, probably how folks in Billings feel.

When we traveled out of town it was typically to visit relatives or go on vacation. It wasn’t simply to shop.

That’s one of the advantages to living in a tiny town – you’re drawn to other places by necessity.

The drive to Billings is a breeze, weather permitting. There is one stop light in the 200 miles, and only a single town – Roundup – between here and there.

Roundup, at 152 miles, is the same distance from Malta that Nashville, Tenn. is from Evansville. Indianapolis, St. Louis and Louisville, Ky. are all less than 200 miles away but we never took a day to visit any of them.

In my family’s defense, at the time there were no NFL or NBA teams in any of those towns. St. Louis had the Cardinals, but being a Cubs fan I was little interested. And really, what was there to do in Nashville?

Barb and I, on the other hand, will jump into the truck and drive a couple hundred miles just for Thai food.

It helps that driving in Montana is such a treat. With the exception of Bozeman any time of day, most of the rest of the state offers sparse traffic, good roads, and spectacular scenery.

The speed limit on the state’s highways used to be posted as “careful and prudent.” Speeding tickets were $5. While that is no longer the case, liberal speed limits still allow folks from elsewhere to pass through here quickly, and Montanans to get from here to there lickety-split.

It’s said that Montana is just a small town with very long streets.

Some, it seems, are much longer than others.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]