Plans of Pacific Coast Bike Route

As posted earlier, I'm planning on biking from Oregon to the Mexico border.  I would have loved to bike the entire coast like many do from Vancouver to San Diego, but I will be in Eugene, OR anyways so will start from there.  I'm on a timeline to reach San Diego by the end of May.

Some of these days may be pushing my limits, but this is just a rough estimate to keep a more realistic approach.  I have the number of the park listed and it turns out all the hiker/biker sites are $5/night.  I know there is a book out there specifically made for people biking the pacific coast but I wanted to save a little money/have fun planning it myself.  This way it offers for a little more adventure too.

The State of Oregon offers a free Map of their coastal bike route.  It can be found at http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/BIKEPED/docs/oregon_coast_bike_route_map.pdf.

I'll continue to post more of my detailed planning and updates on my trip.  I hope this will offer a useful reference or inspiration for others.

Adventures in Thailand

I wrote a previous post that captured some of the insights into why you should go to Thailand and the tactics in which you should follow. That post is titled Traveling to Thailand

 However, in this post, I want to capture some of the moments you can have in Thailand like shown in the figure above. I hope to encourage others to travel the world also.



To arrive in Thailand I took a sleeper train through Malaysia into Hat Yai, Thailand.  I booked this through Seat 61 online for around $20. Shown on the rights is the bed.  It was perfect for about a 6' guy like I am.  Any taller though and you'd have to be pretty scrunched.

Arriving in Hat Yai, I felt like I was in a movie.  Some American on a great adventure across the world.  I'm on the left in this photo trying to search for a place to find a bus to Krabi.  I eventually found the city bus station after asking several people around the city.

Once I arrived in the Ao Nang peninsula of Thailand, I was ready for even more adventure.  Below are some pictures that best capture all that I did.

First some beautiful beaches with some awesome monkeys.

Then, a little climbing and a lot of falling.  Climbing is a passion I've had since high school, so I made sure to really experience these massive cliffs in Thailand.

Lastly, I headed up north into Bangkok before flying back to Doha.  There are all kinds of things to do in Bangkok from the parties to the sightseeing.  Here is a photo of me overlooking Bangkok from a the top of a temple.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and you too get to experience this amazing world.  It is just a huge playground for us.

Southern Africa

In July of this year, I'm planning on going to South Africa and then am going to bus to explore up into central Africa.

The adventures that top the list:

• Surfing in South Africa
• Wildlife/Safari
• Gorilla tour in Rwanda
• Victorian falls
• Mt. Kilimanjaro

I'll post my planning and experiences to help others in the future later.  We really can all travel to the places we desire.  It may just take a change of lifestyle, but it is worth it.

Biking the West Coast of the United States

I'm planning to bike from Oregon down to Mexico via the Pacific Coast next month in May.  I will keep track of all the details and post them here before and after I go.  Please comment/email on any details you want to be included.  I'm super excited for this trip and hope I can inspire a few others to do something similar!!!

How Do I Sign Up for a Roth IRA?

I currently use a Scottrade account.  They offer a low fee for trading, great customer service, and a wide range of funds to choose from.  When I was young and wanted to learn as much about investing as I possibly could, I often went to my grandfather.  He has invested his own money for his entire life, choosing individual stocks along the way.  He taught history for some 40 years with five kids and now he has a very stable and respectable retirement.  I respect him for many reasons and his knowledge is one of them.  Anyways, my grandfather has also used Scottrade for the last few years.  This may mean nothing to you, but Scottrade is one of the better brokerages out there.  I could also recommend Fidelity as I have had experience with them, but Scottrade still has lower fees overall.

To open the account follow the following steps.

1. Go to Scottrade.com

2.  Click “Open A New Account”

3. You will then be prompted to fill out some personal information such as your name and email.

4. Then a screen will appear that lets you select what type of account.  Select Roth IRA.

5. It will then ask how you heard of them for their marketing reasons.

6.  The following pages will be further information about your employment and other personal information.

7.  You will then be given an account number and you can create a password.

8.  A signature page will need to be printed off and mailed to your local branch.  This page can be found in the Forms section of your account.

9.  Lastly, the account needs to be funded.  A minimum of $500 is needed.  It can be sent by check or as a bank transfer. 

Many people know what a Roth IRA is but not at all how to open one.  So, I hope this article has helped.  Please leave a post or email if you have any questions.

Credit Card Rewards! Should I Sign Up?

We often receive in the mail some credit card offer saying if we sign up for it then we’ll get a free round trip ticket or 30,000 miles.  But should you sign up for it?

First of all, if you are an individual who does not pay the balance in full on their credit card at the end of the month, you should not sign up for any of these offers.  Instead, you should search for a credit card with a very low interest rate such as the Chase Slate card.  However, if you do pay off your balance completely, then it would actually be very beneficial to sign up for these cards.

These cards offer some great rewards but if the balance is not paid on the card at the end of the month an annual interest rate at about 20% can be charged.  This is the drawback of the cards.  Also, many of them may have an annual fee.  

Lastly, look at the fine print of the offer.  Many will only offer you the reward after you spend a certain amount of money.  If you’d spend that amount anyways and the card doesn’t have an annual fee, I’d suggest you sign up for the offer and reap the benefits.

As for your credit score, as long as the card line is open for about 6 months or a year and not closed immediately after you receive the reward it should only help your credit score.  Also, from my research it seems as though about 6 credit cards at once should be the number to not exceed to not negatively affect your credit score.  Having this number can actually help your credit as long as you are not using much of the credit limit on each of the cards.

Turn Your Life into a Story

I have realized how I didn’t really love where my life was heading.  It wasn’t bad at all but it really wasn’t something really… special.  I know I should not take any of it for granted as I am surrounded by great people and have a great job, but something from my life was still missing.  I am like most people; I want to somehow make a difference in this world and be a positive influence on others.  But you know what is different?  Some people actually do it.

It hit me the other day how are focus turns our lives into something…boring.  I was walking with one of my friends when a really nice sports car passed us.  My friend said, “Man, all I would like is to have a car like that!”  I agreed the car was pretty nice, but I realized that this is what many people are consumed of.  We work really hard at our job in order to save up for something really nice or just for retirement.  If we are lucky and planned well; then this will happen for us.

But where is the STORY in that?

I want a life that is a story, something exciting and slightly unpredictable.  Not a story where I worked for 10 years at a job I didn’t love to buy a sports car and ride off into the sunset with it.  To live an actual story, we may need to jump out of our comfort zone into a more unpredictable area.

I hope this article can open a few eyes into how some of us are living.  I hope it encourages you to chase a dream of yours.