Hello from a new area code! Billings it is.
The city of Billings is populated with roughly 109,000 people, or “way too many” by most local’s accounts. Coming from an area with roughly 2 million people, most of those new to the area, I understand their frustrations. However, this city is far from crowded. Appointments are rarely more than a couple weeks out for most things. You can still drive around at rush hour. Traffic is usually caused by weather or an accident.
Speaking of weather, Billings has some of the strangest I have ever encountered. It snows here often, but the humidity is so low that the snow melts off very quickly. It is not uncommon to be outside shoveling snow one day, then walking your dog in the sunshine on snow-free sidewalks the very next day.
The culture and food are much more as you would expect of a smaller city. There are a decent amount of brew pubs, steak houses, and pizza places. There is decent options for Pho and Ramen. However, my favorite place so far is a place called “Entree Soup”, which is perfect for the freezing temps here in the winter. Nothing like a nice hot bowl of soup on a 10 degree day!
Our neighborhood is amazing. Pleasantville. We live a block from Torin’s kindergarten school. Red Lodge is a fun little ski hill, albeit lacking a decent snowpack. Bridger and Big Sky within driving range. Tons of beautiful mountains and trails, rivers, etc. Looking forward to exploring here.
This post was a quick update- I will try to update this blog more often.