School me on Billings Montana.

**philth** · 08-05-2015, 08:27 PM

Thanks for all the info everybody. I told wifey the forum will be a good resource and you folks did not disappoint.

**montanaskier** · 08-05-2015, 10:33 PM

PM Rontele for the true inside scoop

**MontuckyFried** · 08-06-2015, 07:44 AM

Originally Posted by philth

Thanks for all the info everybody. I told wifey the forum will be a good resource and you folks did not disappoint.

You got it! TGR is a pretty amazing resource for all sorts of random stuff. Let us know what you guys end up doing!

**philth** · 01-11-2019, 12:38 PM

Fucking hilarious. Billings is back on the table for us and I searched TGR... boom.... I found my old thread I forgot about. Useful! But now concerned about early onset Alzheimer’s.

Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

**MontuckyFried** · 01-11-2019, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by philth

Fucking hilarious. Billings is back on the table for us and I searched TGR... boom.... I found my old thread I forgot about. Useful! But now concerned about early onset Alzheimer’s.

Hey hey! Welcome back! After we left Big Sky Fall before last, my family and I ended up returning to Billings for about a half year til we moved down South last Spring. Seeing my pics on page 1 sure brings back some great memories and reminds me of how much Bozeman snobs can just suck it. Haha. As soon as my "tour of duty" here in Tejas is over, I will heavily consider moving back to Billings.

What's your time line looking like these days?

**Bobcat Sig** · 01-11-2019, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by philth

Fucking hilarious. Billings is back on the table for us and I searched TGR... boom.... I found my old thread I forgot about. Useful! But now concerned about early onset Alzheimer’s.

Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Don't. I lived there for two years. That town fucking sucks balls. Awful. SteepConcrete correctly pointed out that it is truly the Tragic City.

Sure, it's better than living in Nebraska or Iowa, but fuck... compared to the rest of Montana? No thanks. I hated nearly every minute of when I lived there. The best part of that town was seeing it in the rear view mirror of the moving truck as I peeled out of town, middle finger in the air.

Oh, I see Austin would be moving back from Texas? I guess it's an upgrade?? Still... ugh

**2FUNKY** · 01-11-2019, 02:18 PM

Curious why you say that? I didn’t live there but I have spent a ton of time there.
The fishing, hunting, hiking, Mtn biking are all amazing. The skiing is pretty good, Red Lodge close by. Spring skiing in the beartooths is off the hook. Dining was pretty good. Housing seemed very affordable. People were really friendly. It does have its shit hole areas. I have a buddy who still lives there and loves it for the outdoor activities with no crowds.

**stuckathuntermtn** · 01-11-2019, 04:05 PM

Originally Posted by 2FUNKY

Curious why you say that? I didn’t live there but I have spent a ton of time there.
The fishing, hunting, hiking, Mtn biking are all amazing. The skiing is pretty good, Red Lodge close by. Spring skiing in the beartooths is off the hook. Dining was pretty good. Housing seemed very affordable. People were really friendly. It does have its shit hole areas. I have a buddy who still lives there and loves it for the outdoor activities with no crowds.

Well, everyone would have to get out of their lifted trucks with "We don't call 911" gun decals for the outdoors to get crowded. And how are they supposed to murder bicycle commuters if they get out of their IHAVEASMALLPENIS vehicles?
Or am I thinking of Great Falls? meh, same shit. Billings has better mountains and dining, I hear.

**2FUNKY** · 01-11-2019, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn

Well, everyone would have to get out of their lifted trucks with "We don't call 911" gun decals for the outdoors to get crowded. And how are they supposed to murder bicycle commuters if they get out of their IHAVEASMALLPENIS vehicles?
Or am I thinking of Great Falls? meh, same shit. Billings has better mountains and dining, I hear.

Trust me, those bro dozer guys there spend plenty of time in the outdoors. Like I said, the hunting/fishing is amazing.
Your interest in the size of their junk is weird but whatever floats your boat.

**lifelinksplit** · 01-11-2019, 04:27 PM

Yeah if you have the beartooths in your backyard and you think it sucks maybe your priorities are a bit different. Dont get me wrong I'm not a huge fan of the city but like has been mentioned there's ample opportunity for recreation within a short drive. Unfortunately the east laurel ballet is no longer...le sigh.

**Bobcat Sig** · 01-11-2019, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by 2FUNKY

Curious why you say that? I didn’t live there but I have spent a ton of time there.
The fishing, hunting, hiking, Mtn biking are all amazing. The skiing is pretty good, Red Lodge close by. Spring skiing in the beartooths is off the hook. Dining was pretty good. Housing seemed very affordable. People were really friendly. It does have its shit hole areas. I have a buddy who still lives there and loves it for the outdoor activities with no crowds.

Because I live there for two years.

My experience was entirely counter to what you've experienced. I lived there for a combined two years between 2006 and 2009. It's a fucking shit hole. Oh, and it smelled - whether it was the refineries or the sugar plants.

The mountain biking of which you speak is relatively new and I found the mountain biking community to be entirely provincial, unfriendly and counter to nearly everywhere else I've ridden. it seemed to be an extension of 'you're not from here so you wouldn't understand' crowd. Which, should be noted, was and is entirely present in Bozeman. In Billings, it's worse. Or it was.

I found most of the people rather backward politically, bigoted and intolerant. And rude in many cases. I did manage to find a few good people and that helped. The town had a huge inferiority complex about how rad they thought it was. Many Billings die-hards seemed to detest nearly all of any town west of Big Timber, which if I'm being blunt, were all better towns in every measurable and subjective way. As a town, it tried to operate as a small, eastern Montana town and had all of the big(er) city problems that few failed to recognize.

Maybe the restaurant options have improved. When I was there, it was a wasteland in that regard. The brewery scene, at the time, were about five and they were all great so that was a saving grace.

Winters sucked; cold, windy, gray and largely devoid of snow. This spilled over to Red Lodge, which was always affected by low tide during the ski season. Though you are correct, spring skiing there can be all time and skiing off the Beartooth Highway was pretty cool. But that's not Billings; that's Red Lodge.

The dating scene, or simply trying to find a girl that worked a regular white-collar job, that didn't have one or more baby daddies, a meth addicition or a religious zealot was akin to finding water in the desert. However, if you have 2.5 kids, work in the financial industry and the wife in the health corridor; it's a great place to raise kids. Good schools, plenty of sportsball activities, and a pile of mega churches.

And finally, housing could be affordable, but that either meant living in dodgy parts of town or way the fuck up The Heights or even farther out west in the West End. Billings has so much sprawl. I know the housing boom continues to go gang-busters there, so not sure the current state of the market. It's just a sprawl of a town full of ticky-tacky subdivisions and strip malls. Some of the neighborhoods just west of downtown are pretty rad with some cool houses and architecture.

I'll totally cop to being a Bozeman snob, or whatever it's called. Having lived there for the better part of a decade before moving to Billings spoiled me to what's available and close regarding outdoor activities. And as a Portland native (and having relocated back there recently) further magnified that for me.

At the end of the day, it's all subjective. Could it be worse than Billings? Sure. You could live in Nebraska, Iowa or North Dakota. If those were my options, I'd take Billings, buy property in Big Sky or Red Lodge and be in town as little as possible. YMMV

ETA: when I did live there, I was never in town on the weekends. I was either in Bozeman with my friends or in the summer, on a motorbike on the Beartooth Pass. I hated it so much that I'd often stay in Bozeman Sunday night and drive back at the crack of dawn.

Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn

Well, everyone would have to get out of their lifted trucks with "We don't call 911" gun decals for the outdoors to get crowded. And how are they supposed to murder bicycle commuters if they get out of their IHAVEASMALLPENIS vehicles?
Or am I thinking of Great Falls? meh, same shit. Billings has better mountains and dining, I hear.

The correct term is a bro truck or bro-dozer. And yes, so many bro trucks there. Lifted and with all the tires so they can, you know... tear up the pavement as they drive back forth to work.

**2FUNKY** · 01-11-2019, 04:48 PM

Gotcha. As I said, I haven’t lived there, just visited a bunch. Lived in two nearby towns. Cody, WY for 3 years then Bozeman for 12.

**MontuckyFried** · 01-11-2019, 04:56 PM

Wow, Bobcat. Funny your experience was opposite of mine. Then again, you were there years before I got there, so maybe it's improved since? I dunno. Conversely, I really like Billings but can't stand Bozeman. Perhaps ones experiences often reflect the lens from which we view a city from.

**DolphinSki** · 01-11-2019, 05:12 PM

I gotta say Bobcat, those towns have changed a lot since you lived there. Sure, Billings is still quite rough around the edges but I enjoyed my brief stint living there summer of 2016. Basically, since 2006-09, Billings has gotten a lot better and Bozeman has gotten a lot worse.

As for philth, Billings is far from a top-notch mountain town but you could do a hell of a lot worse.