The Journey Begins

We would officially like to welcome you to the Live Rad & Travel Blog!!! Follow Billy and Amity Marcial on their travels! Without further ado… let’s kick this thing off!

Mile - 0

Blog Quote - “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.” - Mark Twain

Song Of The Blog - Soja & Slightly Stupid, “Jump”

With any major moment in life, one cannot bare but spend a lot of their time thinking about the past, the present and the future. We have been spending a lot of time living in this mindset over the past couple months. The wonder of what is to come, the pain of what we currently are leaving and the beautiful memories we have accumulated stand as a healthy reminder of all the things we love about our lives. As we set out on the first leg of our journey to Missouri we have some things we need to share with you all!

Before we set out on this journey, we wanted to take a moment to show some gratitude. There are a lot of people, family members and days in the wilderness which have allowed us to grow as a team and find ourselves. The Marcial Family has played a strong roll locally here in Montana! With Amity moving here just over 10 years ago, you all have embraced her as a family member since day one. For that we are forever grateful for! To all the family dinners and events…. CHEERS! All of the laughs and memories will always be followed by the loudest Auggie-Auggie-Auggie chant! We are the team we are today because of your support, love and friendship. For this we will forever be grateful for you! Mama Marcial, saying bye to you was the hardest element of this move. We will miss you dearly and keep you in our hearts throughout this whole journey! Although we will see less of you, remember we are always here. Just as we will remember you are always here! Please come visit us in the random places we find!

Billy’s Fam<-//One Family//->Amiity’s Fam

As for the Sparks family, you have patiently waited for your daughter to get home from the woods. As the world works, your wishes have been granted. This does not come without a major show of gratitude for your love and support over the years. You have all made such a strong effort to make us feel at home in the midwest. We look forward to many good times, and many journeys! Just make sure to have your camping gear ready, your skis waxed and your adventure boots right next to the door! (How about them….. CHIEFFFFFFFSSS?)

To all of our friends in the greater Northwest Montana, WE LOVE YOU! It is very difficult to think of a life without you all around us! That being said, your support over the last few months has shown us that you all believe in us, and trust in our process! I know you all wanted to say, “No! You are not leaving!” Instead we heard, “Good for you!” I’m not sure if it is because you all see the writing on the wall here, or if you truly believe in our dreams as much as we do. Our endless hours spent with one another in the wilderness will never be forgotten. Continue to Live Rad! We will be back to crush the wilderness with you all again!

We don’t know how to say goodby to Whitefish. We love this place! From ducking the line at our favorite breakfast spot, The Buffalo Cafe, to being able to drive 15 minutes from our house to the parking lot at Whitefish Mountain Resort. There are so many elements of this town and this community that have welcomed us and given us opportunity. For that we say thank you! As for the underbelly of the area, we wish all of you the best of luck and prosperity while navigating what is to come.

Whiteifish Will Always Be Very Close To Us!!!!

We made the decisions to make this move a long time ago, but not without a lot of anxiety and worry for the future. We have both dealt with this in our own ways. The biggest pillar we have used to keep ourselves centered is focusing on the daily tasks we need to accomplish to make this journey happen. From getting all the licensing completed for Amity to take on a Physical Therapy job in another state, to getting everything packed up and ready to go. We have had a lot to get done. We often would find ourselves overwhelmed by the situation or the tasks at hand. We came together as a team to support each other when this would come up.

Packing has been a difficult element. Downsizing after 10 years of accumulating things, comes with its challenges. We have had to sell a lot of things to reduce down to having only the things we need. One of the hardest items for us to part with was Billy’s truck. Having inherited it from his father (RAD JACK) four years ago, it has stood as a sentimental reminder of his father and the legacy of Living Rad! Along with this, it has felt like we have been selling something of ours daily for the last month. Overall, it does feel great to purge items and downsize. It just comes along with a lot of emotional response.

To make the first journey we rented a U-Haul U-Box. Pretty sweet deal! You pack it, drop it off at the U-Haul store and they deliver it to your destination. This makes it easy for us to take this first leg of the journey and truly explore! We like to call packing a game of Jenga. The act of packing, unpacking and repacking our travel unit was quite the task. One day our response would be along the lines of, “We are doing great!” While on other days it would look more like a panic attack mixed with a blender (stuff everywhere!!!). That feeling when it all comes together… OH YEAH! There is no better feeling that that! Not to mention that we finished packing our stuff into the box at 10pm, only to blow up a less than comfortable air mattress to crash on for the night. This made waking up at 8am so that we could get the box down to the U-Haul store and back to work as easy as eating pie. Not to mention this is on Friday morning. We did not leave Whitefish until Tuesday. This means, we had no bed of our own, no couches, no chairs… nothing! Thankfully we have great friends that took us in and allowed us to crash at their place (shout out to the Seefeldts! Overall, the most strenuous component of this start was the time and energy we spent cleaning our old rental as we moved out. As Amity put it best, “I like you, but you’re crazy!”

Packing is always a challenge. Having our life put into a box and shipped to Missouri while we drive around the Rocky Mountains and play is a terrifying thought. “What if it doesn’t make it?” “What if something breaks?” “What if Sasquatch attacks the driver and takes the truck to his home in the Yaak?” All of these things and more run through our heads. The beautiful part about finally being in this spot, is the fact we are now focused on the future. Where do we go? What do we do? All of these answers lie in front of us. It is now our job to reach out into the nexus of the world and manifest our journey.

Abandoned Ski Hill Outside of Kirksville, MO

As for now our plan is pretty simple….. hahaha yeah right! What we know right now is that we are headed to Kirksville, MO. This will become our new home and base camp for our adventures. We are very grateful for the hospitality Amity’s mother and step dad have offered us. Thank you Julie and Jeff! We plan to be there through New Years. After then we will be off to Amity’s first travel location. We have narrowed it down to a couple different areas in Missouri, but we will not know the specific area for a few more weeks (simple right?).

In the more direct future, we are leaving Whitefish and headed to Jackson, WY and the Grand Tetons! After soaking in hot springs and exploring the local hiking (until the snow levels stop us) we will ship out to Colorado! Pending on road conditions and weather our adventure could take a couple different routes. One thing we do know is that we will be skiing. Did you hear me there? SKIING!!!!! OH YEAH BILLY IS BACK!!! After one year of being on an injury hold form skiing, it is time for the Badness to be back on the slopes…. “God save us” - Amity

As we take our time getting to Missouri, we will continue to track our adventures. We will give you all insights into the places we go, the things we do and our personal story that comes along. We will toss in a mixed back of color commentary, tips and tricks, anecdotal stories and everything that comes along with Living Rad!

Once again to all of you that we are saying “Good Bye” to, we love you and will miss you!!! To everyone we will see along the way, we cannot wait to share in the adventure!

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Grinding Into Grand Teton National Park