MontanaWithKids.com

The price of crude oil has been hovering around $70 a barrel for the last week meanwhile gasoline pump prices in the U.S. and Canada are down by about a nickel a gallon or 1 cent per litre during that same time. The average price for a gallon of gasoline is $2.63 today per the AAA fuelguage report. Montana’s gasoline prices are averaging $2.71 barely nudging down from a week ago price. (more…)

West-coasters traveling through Montana may not get as far east as Billings, but if you do, there are a good many things there to see that you just shouldn’t miss. One example is the Yellowstone Art Museum, and don’t let the name fool you, it’s not a bunch of geyser-themed artwork. No, it’s a real museum. So if you’re old enough to keep your hands off the exhibits, it’s well worth the visit.
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We first learned about Havre thanks to Debbie Vandeberg at the Chamber of Commerce. We were looking for a Montana destination with character, personality, and enough fun to keep short-attention-span tourists like us entertained while we checked out the town and wrote up all the attractions. Debbie didn’t just engage us, she pointed us in the right direction, and what we’ve found is Havre, Montana. It’s a city with a long, rich history, unique cultural attractions, a large and growing base of local citizens, and an overall fascinating town. (more…)

Aside from food there are some really critical things you need to pack to make sure your big road trip goes smoothly. Whether you’re just going up-state or you’re planning to span the nation, these items and ideas can transform a disaster-waiting-to-happen into a can’t-go-wrong vacation. Some of these we’ve never needed, but others have saved our skin on more than one occasion. (more…)

Nationally the average price for regular unleaded gasoline is $2.658 down about 3 cents per gallon from a week ago. Montana’s gasoline prices have leveled off at $2.72 with California staying high at $3.01 per gallon. Hawaii gets the prize for the highest cost for gasoline at $3.09 per gallon in the AAA fuelgauge.report. The gasoline spot market price meanwhile has dropped by 20 cents per gallon in the last two weeks but retail pump prices have not reacted in kind and are not expected to drop much more before the end of next week. (more…)

So you’re planning a road trip and you want to make sure you don’t forget anything too important. It’s a smart decision, so here’s a packing list we’ve put together to cover as many of the important things as you could reasonably fit in the car. The two biggest risks in packing for your road trip are, in this order, 1) over-packing, and 2) under-packing. A distant third is forgetting something important, but you can still strike a working balance. (more…)

The next installment in our travel Road Trip Food Packing series is the food overview. One important question to consider when planning that big road trip is how much food is the right amount of food to pack, and the other question is what kinds of food should I pack?. There’s no perfect answer because every traveler is as different as every trip and every taste. (more…)

April showers may bring May flowers but this year it also brought forth a spring time renewal for oil refiner’s profits. This was in the form of increased demand for gasoline after dismal first quarter results in 2009. But now the June swoon has come too soon and the oil companies are looking forward to those summer breezes peeking just around the corner. (more…)

This is the fourth part in our Road Trip Food Packing series. Today we’ll cover foods you can pack along and then microwave to delicious perfection. How can you save the most money on road trip snacks? What are the most popular road trip snacks? How can you keep your road trip snacks fresh? This article includes photos, examples and explanations. (more…)

This is the third part in our Road Trip Food Packing series. Today we’ll cover the myriad pop-cup foods you can pack for ready consumption. How can you get vegetables while you’re on the road? How can you eat fruits while you’re on a raod trip? What are the easiest foods to take on a road trip? This article includes photos, examples and explanations.
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After emigrating to the U.S. from Holland, at the young age of 15, I learned to speak English by watching Saturday morning cartoons and listening to Elvis Presley songs on the radio. (more…)

This is the second part in our Road Trip Food Packing series. Today we’ll cover packable dry snacks you can enjoy on the road or in your hotel. How can you save the most money on road trip snacks? What are the most popular road trip snacks? How can you keep your road trip snacks fresh? This article includes photos, examples and explanations. (more…)

This is the first part in our Road Trip Food Packing series. Today we’ll cover beverages. How many drinks should you take with you on the road trip? Which drinks are the best for kids? Which drinks are the best for adults? Should you bring cold drinks and a cooler on your road trip? Quick answer to the cooler is “no”, because it’s a hassle, it leaks and it melts far too quickly to be useful. As for the rest, read on and look at our pictures and examples to show you what we recommend for road trips with or without children (more…)

If you’re driving on Highway 93 in the area south of Missoula, Montana, there’s a certain family fun center you just shouldn’t miss. It’s got a name as unique as the super-fun offerings they have inside, but maybe you don’t have kids, you’re in a big hurry, or just some sort of general fuddy-duddy. I can’t speak to who you are or what made you that way, but I can tell you that if you’re in the area and hungry, forget what you know about afterthought cafés, because Café Gelato is well worth the stop whatever your reason.
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Right in the heart of Virginia City, you might be surprised to find a museum that allows all to enter for free. That’s right, at no cost at all. What might surprise you less is that it’s actually just a junk shop full of thousands of touristy trinkets for sale, along with a couple arguably interesting historical relics. Kind of depends what you’re into, but I love touristy stuff, so without admission charge, it works for me.
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We first visited Staggering Ox in Helena, where they have an unbelievable flagship eatery, complete with acres of kitsch, an art museum full of some of the least likely “art,” and a staff that just can’t be beat… they also have great food, but once you’re there, it hardly seems like the point. We loved the food, so we decided to focus on it more specifically this time around.
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One of the easiest attractions to find in Butte, Montana, is the trolley tour offered by the chamber of commerce. Sure it’s fun and a good value, but it’s also expertly hosted and a great way to get a glimpse of all the other in-town attractions so you can decide for yourself what it is you want to see more of, and even where you might want to bed down for the night.
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While the market sorted itself out yesterday, I was busy trying to keep from running out of water at the Bob’s Big Boy Ranch in Terry, Montana. At one point we not only had our artesian well down but our hard water well had shut down as well. Unexpectedly, we had to make a quick trip and run out to the Terry Super Valu grocery store to stock up on bottled water. We may well be having a similar problem happening right now in the refining and petroleum business. (more…)

It was a lazy summer day when we were driving back from having all kinds of assorted fun on the road when my driver noted the car was overheating. We were almost back to our hotel, so we managed to skate in without stopping on a wing, a prayer, and since we didn’t have either of those things on hand, sheer luck.
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Blockbuster films probably aren’t the first thing you think of when you make your list of booming businesses in Montana, but, the film industry, flush with a new blast of cash from the stimulus package, has set its sights once again on the big sky state, and is already making strides to aid the state’s economy.
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Billings, Montana is a really great city, and not just because every third hotel has a water slide, but because there’s so much history stuffed into such a small area, really making Billings worth driving that far out for. One exceptional example is Moss Mansion, and not just because it’s a really cool old house, but because of the man who built it and the family he raised to live there.
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Dateline: Terry, Montana 05-26-2009 10:00 AM MST - The July WTI crude oil price is a basic no change down 21 cents to $61.46 a barrel. The spot market gasoline price is up 1 cent per gallon and diesel no change so far this morning. The average price for regular unleaded gasoline is $2.421 per gallon in the U.S. with the West Coast at $2.667 per gallon. (more…)

We’ve made no qualms about the great times we’ve had in Billings, and no review series would be complete without a write-up of one of the best places in the area, the Western Heritage Museum. Sure, it’s historic, and sure, it’s fun and interesting, but more than any of that, did you know it’s also Smithsonian accredited? Well it’s that, and affordable!
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One of the funnest distractions we ever found in all our cowboy adventures was this new game I think they just invented called “Horseshoes”. It works like this: you kindly explain to your horses that they’re in a ‘no shoe’ pasture, ask them to kick them off, and then to be a wise Alec, you throw them as far as you possibly can. Ringer!
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A town so far east we barely made it out there on our first trip is Billings. Once you’re there, you’re half way from the Pacific Ocean to Minneapolis, and with our schedule getting busier and busier with each passing day, we weren’t even sure if we’d make it out there, but boy are we glad that we did.
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We spent three weeks in Montana last June/July and another three weeks last August, so when we announced our nine week tour for this summer, friends and family said, “Boy, you guys sure like Montana, don’t you?” Well yes we do, and there are a number of reasons why. Rather than email every single person individually, we decided to publish a story detailing some of the many reasons why big sky country is a place that, once you see it, you just can’t get it out of your head.
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Terry, Montana - My wife and I recently struck up a conversation with a very nice elderly couple while shopping and waiting in line to have some fabric cut at the Jo-Ann store in Bellevue, Washington. The wait was almost 45 minutes so we had plenty of time to discuss various subjects. Our conversation quickly turned to the state or our economy after comparing how many years each of us have been married to our spouses. (more…)

Whether you’re a long-time fan or you just “herd” of this recently, there is an attraction about to make its way through West Yellowstone for the last time. Don’t worry, you’ve still got a while to see it. I mean I don’t want you to cause a stampede or anything.
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It seems that once you hit the summer scorching states, a big percentage of them have water attractions designed to draw you in. Some are better than others, though, and others still soak you twice when it comes to price. We stayed at plenty, but our favorite by a good margin was the Wingate by Wyndam in Missoula. They’ve got the value, quality, convenience and good rooms too.
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Later this summer we’ll be spending some time out at the Bar N Ranch in West Yellowstone. It’s one of those cozy, unbeatable places where it’s strongly advised to book as far in advance as possible, and plan to struggle debating between the many activities available and your natural desire to just sit back and watch the sun set. In response to strong and growing demand, they’ve made a big announcement this week.
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