No0b from Montana

Welcome from another Newbie.

 

Ditto

 

And welcome from Australia to all of you.

 

What part of MT ? It's the 4th largetst state. We have a place in Kalispell MT ~ so you're within 1,000's of sq miles of our place, right?

 

Welcome from another 08 package 2 owner. Enjoy the ride

 

Nice! You'll continue to love the Prius more & more. We've taken ours up & back from So Cal 2X. Once in the winter over the Contenental divide, up & down I-15, and once in the summer the long way, highway 1 &101 then along the Columbia River. No complaints out of the car, just my wife and I complained ... too much driving! But it did great, whether it was over 110 degrees, or whether it was only 10 degrees. Welcome to PC, too. When our '04 came out, I never saw even ONE Prius in the Flathead Vallely, now, there's quite a few. We'll have all those pickups & SUV's thinned out in no time (well, maybe a little longer). Who knows, maybe Kalispell will even be getting their own Lexus Dealership ... after all, we finally got a full sized Costco.

 

Cool. I was in the Flathead Res this summer, visiting my sister (Sanders County). Practically spitting distance away, as far as Montana goes. There was also a petroleum engineering student on this forum, going to college in Helena I think, but I don't recall seeing his posts lately. Must've graduated.

 

6'-5" HERE ...
The seats cause way more of us 'normal height' folks discomfort than the shorties . But with work-arounds, we've managed. Well !! 1880's you say? Then your GGparents saw the construction of OUR home ... right across from the Conrad Mansion in the 1890's. Ours is the yellow Colonial sitting on the corner lot across from the Conrad Mansion Gardens. It was outhouse blue-grey for 42 years when Dr. Downey, the town Dentist owned it. Here's the 3 transformations ... the thirds being our handiwork.


As you can see ... the ORIGINAL owner wans't much into hybrids





My wife LOVES yellow (shaking head) Our so. Cal home is the same color. Can you tell we love old homes & small towns? ... it still IS small, even tho it got bigger during the housing boom of the last 15 years. Heck, your parents & grand parents probably went to Dr Downey over the decades. There aren't many, who can boast being stock from original settlers. Maybe we can hook up for dinner at (my wife's favorite place ... as she forces me to ball room dance with her ) at the Big Fork in, next time we're in town. You can check out our Lexus hybrid.

 

Must be another place, as we bought it from the Downey's. Downeys bought it from Carl Hummer in 1964, & the Hummers had it since 1937 ... Carl Hummer was the manager of the Imperial, a women's shop located where Harmon's women's Apparel is / used to be). Anywho, our contractor, Bryan is staying it it right now as we're taking care of a lot of deferred maintenance. We'll be back in a few months.
But, so as not to hyjack the thread, back to being a happy Prius owner. You'll find the MPG will do even better than you already get if you get a block heater for winter driving. Your cabin heater will get toasty quicker too. Anyway we'll keep in touch. Enjoy!

 

That's about the time I was born there! Now that's still a small town. My family actually lived over in Plains, but that didn't have a hospital. My sister moved back last year, she was living in upstate NY but had to leave when her town got a Walmart and a few fast-food joints. But Plains is really growing too, bunch of 5-acre lots (or is it 10?) being sold on the south side of the river for the west coast folks (no offense hill) to put up their summer homes overlooking the valley. Not sure what they do for water, must drill pretty deep wells.

One of the things I did to help visibility was turn the inside rear-view mirror upside-down. Makes dimming for night-time harder, but at least for me it gave a crucial extra inch of visibility under the rear-view mirror at intersections. I'm a couple inches shorter than you, so I'm not sure how it would work in your case.

For the winter, I'd also recommend blocking the grill with pipe insulation, slit in half and stuffed in. That helps keep the engine warm. Since it's off so much of the time, it has a tendency to lose heat in the cold.

 

Search PC for instructions on the install, as I know it's here somewhere ... maybe someone will chime in where it is. One of the Prius chicks down in San Diego did it herself ... basicly pointing out to do-ability for those not so mechanicaly inclined.

Yep, MT has its share of not-so-rich areas ... Eureka comes to mind ... and Columbia Falls (we used to have a home just north of Woodies off of Blackmer Rd) too. But the Golf / country club up there sure is nice!

EDIT:
Ahhh! Here's the install link;

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-m...ine-block-heater-yourself-guide-may-help.html

 

Where you find the grill blocking & block heater really pays, is on the short (4 miles) winter trips. Personaly, for someone who's uncomfortable wrenching, I'd rate the block heater install about a 7, on a scale of 10 ... not too terribly hard. As for SUPER small MT towns, my all time favorite is Troy (I'm giving away kind of my personal secret) because it's not too terribly far from Trader Joes & an international airport (in Spokane). I gotta have my 2 buck chuck! One of my wife's friends there has a picture of a HUGE elk she brought down from 200yards, on their 200 acres. Now THAT's what I call a mountain chick, and 'not needing neighbors near by'

 

My favorite was Nye, just because of the sign at the intersection, which basically forms the town: "You are now entering and leaving the town of Nye, MT".

I also like Twodot, as supposedly it got it's name from a rancher who lost his fingers somehow, so would sign his name by dipping two finger stubs in ink.

What do you know...everything is on the web today! Here's the Nye sign.

In the Rockies, towns list their elevation as well as their population, so anytime the elevation is bigger than the population, you know it's got character. Nye doesn't even list the populaton.

One time we were driving on Hwy 12 thru Montana, and my mom said we needed to get a hotel at Forsyth. My aunt thought the next day's drive was too long, and we could continue another 40 miles or so, get a hotel at Ingomar or Sumatra, nothing fancy, whatever was available. But my mom insisted on staying at Forsyth. The next day we drove past those two towns and my aunt was just amazed, these tiny little places, dozens of miles from anything, and only a half-dozen houses in the town. Sumatra has a bar/general store I believe (bathrooms are out back, labeled Roosters and Hens as I recall), and that's it. And they're on the state map, just because there's nothing else to put there.