In April of ought six, I pondered two options for saving for my kids’ college: the 529-plan I have and Washingon State’s 529 program, Guaranteed Education Tuition (“GET“). At the time, I concluded my existing 529 would have a better expected return because the expected returns over my relatively short investment horizon (10 years) would not be enough to offset the better expected return, but 20% front-end load of the GET. ...

Day 4: Lake Selmac, OR to Glendale, OR – With the big hills out of the way, they ratcheted up the distance. But by now, I was feeling pretty good. I got to wondering how much better I’d feel if I did a ride like this at the beginning of the season instead of the end… Highlights: The route. This is why you take the roundabout way! By mid-morning, we were following the Rogue River near Galice-Hellgate. During my layover day in Grants Pass, I kayaked just west of here. ...

This year’s route was: Medford, OR to Yreka, CA 66 miles 5,450′ Yreka to Happy Camp 74 miles 2,600′ Happy Camp to Lake Selmac, OR 54 miles 5,200′ Lake Selmac to Glendale 71 miles 4,192′ Glendale to Grants Pass 77 miles 3,900′ Grants Pass loop 43 miles 2,900′ Grants Pass to Medford 42 miles 2,900′ Day 1 – Medford, OR to Yreka, CA: Highlights: The ascent up the Siskiyous. I have come to enjoy these slow, steady grinds uphill: ...

**1Q 2008:**Travel to Reno (NV), Vancouver (BC), Portland (OR). Rode (most of) SIR 200k March brevet – So close to finishing. Had my first forty-something physical. Tried volunteering at a local school. Learned that dried spaghetti, when bent enough, will break in at least three places. 2Q 2008: Travel to: Pendleton (OR), Richland (WA) Rode the Century Ride of the Centuries, camped at Moran State Park (WA). Made tape art chrysalis for April Fool’s Day. Tossed out all my obsolete media. Had all of my lower fillings replaced with Folger’s Crystals. ...

Day 3: Baker City to Halfway – The big epiphany today was that skipping the (now monotonous) breakfast meant I could sleep in. By getting on the road at 7:30, versus 6:30, I didn’t freeze my … um… didn’t need a jacket for the hour it was too cold. Now I just needed a step 3 (“Profit!”). The ride up to the Oregon Trail interpretive center was marred by the cacophony of aid cars zooming past. Rumor was a rider had been grazed by an RV. (RVs scare me. When I rode the coast a few years ago, I was far more worried about RV owners – often leased vehicles being operated by someone with age-induced sensory loss – than logging trucks. Loggers know what they’re doing.) Ahem. I don’t remember much else about the route other than there was one significant climb whose significant descent led us into the town of Halfway. I was surprised how uncomfortable some people were in going downhill, without braking. The landscape of Halfway was pretty: ...

Almost time for the product launch! (image by Scott Meyer) Last year at this time, Cacade’s Ride Around Washington was leaning towards the “Ring of Fire” volcano route. I’ve had good experiences on two of their other events, and was looking forward to riding this year’s. In every other year, the ride has open slots through June, plenty of time to figure out my plans for the summer. This year, it sold out January 3rd, two days after signups opened. Great for Cascade, sucks for Jim. ...

Not that I need another hobby, but… I’ve belatedly taken my friend Tracey’s suggestion to try geocaching, essentially a treasure hunt. When I started reading about it last month, I was impressed with how many of these things there are. Check out the map of geocaches within a few miles of home: So many caches, so little time The first one I found is known as a multi-cache – the little icon that looks like a sort of yellowish file cabinet drawer opened. With these, you have to find one or more intermediate waypoints to end up at the final, “traditional cache” (the shoebox icon) destination nearby. It’s not the best type of cache to try at first, but in this case I lucked out. What made finding it memorable was how much effort its creater put into the ingenious contraption. Externally, it looked like the ubiquitous bird house found in suburbia. When inspected closely – not that you’d ever have any reason to do so – one might notice the bottom pulled out to reveal the Cache of Geo-Joy. ...

I don’t drive as much as I used to, but yowza, $54.87 to fill up my gas tank today. For some historical perspective, the Energy Information Administration at the Department of Energy who publishes weekly gasoline prices. Here, they attempt to explain gas pricing, best summarized as: World crude oil prices reached record levels in 2007 due mainly to high worldwide oil demand relative to supply. Other factors contributing to higher crude oil prices include political events and conflicts in some major oil producing regions, as well as other factors such as the declining value of the U.S. dollar (the currency at which crude oil is traded globally). ...

Inspired by Spring being officially upon us in the northwest (while the rest of you in North America are having “summer”), I went on another cleaning rampage the weekend before CROC, this time focusing on the garage. For the most part, this involved coming to acceptance that the 17″ piece of baseboard, fractional container of petrified plumber’s putty, sourdough incubation chamber, and various other home improvement remnants Are Not Going To Be Used. Ever. Throwing out all this stuff freed up a lot of space on my “workbench,” formerly known as The Horizontal Surface On Which Crap Is Dumped. ...

I felt great when I rolled into Greenwater, the point geographically farthest from the start of Saturday’s 200k brevet. I got my card stamped inside the store, reloaded my water bottles with the unnatural blue sports drink, and chomped away on a slab of vanilla ice cream surrounded by two, chewy chocolate chip cookies. I reckoned the remaining forty, mostly downhill miles would be easily doable within the five hours of time remaining. All the steady winter riding had finally paid off. I’d complete my first ever brevet. ...