It’s Not You MT, It’s Me

Moving from Montana to South Carolina: the job, the drive and everything in between.

The Job

Somewhere during the amazing summer I spent in Seattle, I realized I wanted to explore the careers in University Relations, more specifically I wanted to be a Recruiter. The UR Recruitment team at SAP Concur offered a lot of valuable insight into the struggles and joys they experienced in their roles and I knew that was the job for me. I really valued the internships I had in college and was thrilled when I had the opportunity to work at Riddle & Bloom, where I am able to connect with college students and help them gain marketing experience.

The job was first introduced to me in March of 2020, then the world stopped turning. From there, I graduated, worked on my resume, accepted a job at TOMIS and enjoyed one last summer in Missoula with my friends. We kept in touch for the whole year until they came back around and offered me the job in December, I accepted December 14th, spent the holidays with my family, and I was packed and on the road by January 12th.

The Drive from Montana to South Carolina

Day 1: Missoula to Miles City, MT

80 mph winds across the state, topper on my Subaru and all day to get there. What’s not enjoyable about that?

Day 2: Miles City to Sioux City, IA

What do you know? More wind! This time, however, I was fortunate to have the company of my mom for the mass majority (27 hours) of what was left of the drive.

A whole 40 minutes into the drive, not even out of Montana yet and I got a speeding ticket. Despite the pity party mom and I tried to throw about having to drive 34 hours, I still got the citation, but he was nice enough to lower the speed he caught me at to lower the fine – thanks, officer!

We wanted to stop for a snacky snack and thought Rapid City, SD was just the place. The Perkins on the side of the highway? Perfect.

Except we couldn’t find it- where is this road?

Eventually, once we get seated and order our food, we hear the server yelling to her coworkers in the kitchen “Did I ask if you were ready to order?!”. Not about us, of course, but mom politely let them know (after we got our food, of course) that we could hear everything they were saying and it paid off – we got a discount!

Day 3: Sioux City to somewhere in Kentucky

Missouri is where it gets good. St. Joseph, Missouri to be specific. At this point we needed coffee and what’s safer than Starbucks?

Exit after exit, we finally see a Starbucks sign and pull off. Maps took us to one in Target. It wasn’t ideal, but we were desperate so we went in… only to decide the line wasn’t worth it —> onto the next place.

Eager to get out of this cringey town, we headed back towards the interstate….

Fast forward to me missing the turn and driving an extra 5 miles to Savannah, MO when I spotted a donut and coffee shop. Perfect.

“Do you have espresso?” I asked. “Expresso? No, we don’t.” She responded. Trying not to cringe, I pointed out that their menu said cappuccino, and that did in fact contain espresso. “Oh… really?” She responded and started listing their flavors for it.

I thought I was being Punk’d.

I played it safe and ordered a vanilla cappuccino. She then went to the back for a few minutes and returned with two “coffees”. No steaming and no grinding… I still don’t know what these drinks were.

Next stop: A real Starbucks… as far away from St. Joseph as we could get.

Day 4: Somewhere in Kentucky to Columbia, SC

We were excited to start this day early, especially because Nashville was only an hour away. And Nashville? Do NOT stop in Nashville unless you have all day because you will not want to leave.

The live music, the history, the sights, and the food (okay, drinks) made it the perfect stopping point to get out and stretch our legs. After a few drinks at Kid Rock’s Honky Tonk, the Grand Ole Opry, and Johnny Cash’s museum, we were on the final stretch. The drive from Tennessee to North Carolina then South Carolina seemed to go by the fastest and thank God – because we were over it at this point.

Montana to South Carolina

It turns out that maybe Montana isn’t for me… for right now. 🙂

Anyways, here’s an assortment of blurry images we tried to take during the drive with a free song that came with iMovie!