Living in Glendive, Montana: What You Always Wanted to Know

How does a person explain what it is to live in rural Montana. We think the cost of living is reasonable, however there are many people who work two and three jobs at barely minimum wage just to be able to pay the bills. Business owners think that paying their employees $10 an hour is great pay, with no benefits thrown in.

Living in Glendive, which is on the eastern edge of Montana means that any decent shopping is at least 200 miles in either direction. We go to Bismarck, North Dakota or Billings, Montana.

Most of us who have grown up here are used to a four-hour drive one way just to go to an orthodontist. The price of gas is hardly figured into anything because the "savings" of purchases made out of town can easily make us forget we paid for the gas, two or more meals, maybe an overnight stay in a hotel. There are those of us (and I count myself here) who, when we decide to go to Billings or Bismarck, rise at an ungodly hour of the morning grab a latte at the local convenience store and start the trip.

Music is a great time passer as are books or magazines. Looking out the window at the changing scenery is also good. My children grew up listing to tapes in whatever vehicle we had at the time. A good one to listen to was "Hooked on Classics." Even now, when my 30 year old daughter hears this music she feels like she is moving down the road to who knows where. We also listened to a lot of 70 and 80's music.

Once we hit Billings or Bismarck we know where we have to go and what we have to do. It may be a doctor's appointment or just a trip because there was nothing else to do. Growing up in a small town means that a lot of times there is "nothing else to do" so let's just go on a road trip; a one-dayer.

Over to Billings and back in one day--8 hours during the day sitting in a car going to Billings and coming back from Billings. A usual trip to Billings or Bismarck usually keeps us away from home for 12 hours. So, if we rise and leave by 7:00 a.m. that means we are usually home by 7:00 p.m. With 8 hours spent in the car that means that we have 4 hours in Billings to do what we have to do.

If we're shopping, no problem. Just hit whatever stores we need to, grab a quick meal at some restaurant not found in Glendive and boogie outa town. If we're doctoring, however our extra 4 hours can easily be spent waiting, waiting, waiting or on some test the doctor needs done. I once had a doctor who assigned me to have an MRI at 10:30 p.m. which meant I would get out around midnight. I cancelled the MRI and drove my butt home. The next day, the doctor called me and wanted to know why I cancelled. I told her that there is no way I would be in downtown Glendive by myself at midnight let alone downtown Billings! Oh, she hadn't thought of that.

I'm not complaining about living here, I love it here. The 100+ degrees in the summer and the -40 below in the winter. It's the differences that make it interesting. I've been to California and the traffic just gives me the jitters. Here, I can go for miles and miles on the interstate and meet maybe 10 cars. Put the car on cruise and literally, cruise on down the highway. The fresh air, the summer thunderstorms, the winter blizzards all make for a lovely place to live.

The newest thing for "drawing tourists to our area" is hunting for dinosaurs and fossils. Tourists love doing this. Growing up in Glendive meant that we all know where the dinosaurs are buried, we all know where the fossils are however the "natives" were just happy to leave the bones where they lay. There has recently been an influx of people who see money in them thar bones and have started a tourism industry revolving around the finding and digging up of dinosaurs. The only good thing I see out of this is that there have been a couple of "Make a Wish" children in the area digging up dinos. Now for them I think it's great, but I haven't been too happy with the money side of the deal. I think leaving sleeping dinos and fossils lie would be the way to go, but evidently I can't change progress.