Convenient place to live

[Horace]

Suburban brag incoming. Had to go to four different shops today for four different things. Wiper blades at the auto parts store, soil & compost at home depot, dog food at pet food shop, groceries at supermarket. Total round trip drive time 20 minutes, distance 8 miles. 3 of the 4 shops have opened since we moved here.

[jodi]

I live in a town of about 36K people. Yes, I have to order things online, but I love that most of my errands take less than 5 minutes to get to. And I can go the back way and avoid the traffic lights.

[AndyD]

Nice.
Hmmm, 10k people in our small town. Theoretically a 3 minute drive to market place park. Buy it all in B&M(and Co-Op/ Autoshop). And back.

However to get exactly what is needed, a drive to two nearby towns, couple of hours and a 15 mile round trip.
In London it would have been half the distance but same time.

[jodi]

To give some perspective, I live in Montana, the county I live in is small - 719 square miles (1157 square Km)n the town has about 35K residents, the county has just over 36K! Closest towns with more shopping options (and better airports) are not far (68, 77 miles) but you have to go through mountain canyons/over mountain passes to get there, and the roads are dicey (to say the least) in bad winter weather. But in good weather, it’s easy with our 80mph speed limits. I do love the great wide open, and feel a tad claustrophobic when I visit more heavily populated areas.

[jodi]

A couple of photos that I’ll turn into paintings eventually. My drive home almost every day from the gallery and clay studio in uptown.

[blondie]

Convenience is everything.
Beautiful views Jodi!

[Renauda]

@jodi

What town is that in Montana?

[AndyD]

That's a super photo.
Subway ad notwithstanding, what a vista ️

[jodi]

Butte. A toxic waste dump. (Seriously - I think it’s the largest superfund site in the United States). Also has the coolest old Buildings and the most Ghost Signs. So much history, something like 10,000 miles of mining tunnels under the city - mostly filled with water now, they get all their copper and molybdenum surface mining. An HUGE amount of money every day still comes out of this place.

[jodi]

It is also a landscape painter’s dream. (From my perspective)

[Renauda]

@jodi

Butte. A toxic waste dump. (Seriously - I think it’s the largest superfund site in the United States).

I know it well. The USEPA rep there gave me and a couple of colleagues a tour of the mine site. Disturbing to say the least.

My maternal grandmother was born not far from Butte. Close to Virginia City in a little Irish village called Laurin - now, for all intents and purposes, a ghost town although the old red stone RC church and school are still in operation.