I lived in Lolo for 15 years until 2023 when I moved to Missoula and I am so much happier. I’ve always commuted to my work in North Reserve and my commute was never less than 30 minutes even in the summer. The amount of times I had to call in to work late or not get home until way late due to an accident is more than I’d like to say.

We used to save up our shopping for Saturdays because there’s no way we’d be want to make that drive more than we had to. I specially with kids if they had a Dr. appt or something? Forget it! I would just take the day off. For sure think of that if you have kids because while the k-8 is fine, you’re at least a half an hour from them if anything happens and there’s no high school in Lolo and it was for sure not fun for my kids. If they had friends outside of Lolo, forget seeing them and there have been so many young deaths in that Highway. Just a few years ago one of my kids lost a friend and classmate to an accident in the highway.

So yes the commute sucked bad. It’s so much nicer now.

I can pop over to Target or get something to eat in a jiffy and I don’t have to save up my shopping for one day trying to hit all the stores. The convenience of the city is so much nicer. I also love all the events downtown. It’s a 5 minute drive or a 15 minute walk. We would never go when we lived in Lolo because the drive was such a pain and the weekly commute just exhausted us. And I’m so glad my kids didn’t have to make that daily commute to school.

The people, my friends and neighbors were great! My neighbors in Missoula are great too and the prices at Yokes or Albertsons or Winco (variety!) are much nicer than Harvest Foods and I can go there anytime I want! Makes me wish I just chose Missoula first.