Day 5, Recovery Day

Welcome back to Ohio, Rachel and Tony! Saturday morning, rode across town through Beavercreek to my cousin’s new apartment complex to help them move in. With about ten people helping out, they were ready for a party by kickoff. We all watched the Buckeyes lose, then hung out for the night.

Moving complete, we kicked back and watched the game.

SW Ohio by Bike November 2015

Day 4, Beavercreek

Friday morning, hit the trail north from Mason to Beavercreek.

I intended this trip to be more leisurely than my first, but some quick addition could have revealed that would not be the case. It has gone to plan so far, and 225 miles in 4 days is not leisurely. I have 3 books to read and don’t have to be back until… I don’t know, Thursday? I’ll take it easy on the way home.

The southwest Ohio trail network is centered in Xenia Station, hence the 0.0 mile marker there. It truly is a great network that connects almost continuously with dedicated bicycle trails from Cincinnati to Cleveland.

I arrived at Ahmed and Emily’s home in Beavercreek on Friday afternoon and enjoyed lunch, Young’s Dairy, and chicken for dinner. I met their two kids, Alistair and Bazile for the first time also.

Ally, Me, Bazile, Ahmed, Emily
Camera was rolling

SW Ohio by Bike November 2015

Day 3, Cincinnati

Biked from Mason to Cincinnati and back today. At some point today biking miles passed up miles on the truck.

Had lunch at Skyline Chili with my cousin Shannon and her husband, who both work downtown. Thanks for lunch, Shannon and Brett.

Along the Ohio River in Cincinnati

On the way back my friend Kevin met me in Loveland and rode 10 miles back with me to his house.

Saw the newest Bond movie Spectre tonight. It was good, Definitely worth seeing.

With the Kevin, Caelin, and Carter family. Toy Story DVD in the foreground, a mesmerizing movie.

SW Ohio by Bike November 2015

Day 2, Cedarville to Mason

This is my first post on the road. It’s actually pretty easy to do from my phone. I’m here with Kevin Furay at his lovely townhome and we are both being antisocial on the internet.

This morning, I woke up, broke camp, and started riding southwest from Cedarville.

The path is straight and flat just like the railroad it replaced. The coolest part today was the construction on the new I-71 bridge over the Little Miami River. There was drainage water falling from the road like rain on the path from 100 feet above. I also saw a large buck on the path, but he disappeared into a field before I rode close.

A new bridge is being built while traffic continues to use the old bridge.

SW Ohio by Bike November 2015

Day 1, Columbus to Cedarville

I’m on the road again, this time touring southwest Ohio on the bike path from Columbus to Cincinnati. I got a late start, rode the COTA bus from home to Grove City in order to pick up the bike path in Galloway. I stopped in Galloway for dinner before really even riding and didn’t hit the trail until after dark.

From 2000-2345 Tuesday night, I rode from Galloway to just short of Cedarville.

When I started out, I was worried that I would have some trouble on an unfamiliar trail at night, but with a warm tailwind and enough of a moon for light, it was my new favorite ride since returning to Ohio. Of note, toward the end of the ride, I ran over an animal about the size of a possum. It ran right in front of me in the dark. I could hardly see it and it scurried off into the grass quickly afterward.

The path is as straight and flat as can be!

SW Ohio by Bike November 2015

Quiz Week

Truck 1292 miles – Bike 1185 miles

Answer to last week’s question: Eddie Rickenbacker was a civilian in 1942, but he was sent to review operations and living conditions in the Pacific Theater, as well as to deliver a secret message from President Roosevelt to General MacArthur.

This week’s question, another semi-local one: when the Olentangy River was named in 1833, what was it supposed to be named? Which nearby river was supposed to be called “Olentangy?”

Time Flies

I can’t believe it’s November already.

Saturday night, I had my best bike ride since returning home. I rode to Tequila Cowboy on Polaris to meet my brother for Halloween. I was dressed as a commuter cyclist complete with blinking red light. It started to rain on the way there and by the time I left, it was coming down pretty hard. I thought it would be cold and miserable, but with the extra layers I had to go slow because I was hot. No cars at all, I was singing in the rain for 10 miles, and soaked by the time I was home. It was awesome.

79 miles on the bike to 59 miles in the truck last week, marking the 4th week in a row that I’ve biked more than driven. The truck is still in the lead, however, 1171-1215. Closing!

Answer to last week’s trivia: the north pole is an ocean that happens to be frozen. The south pole is a continent of land covered with ice. Also, no penguins at the north pole!

This week’s quiz question: World War One ace and Medal of Honor recipient Eddie Rickenbacker was adrift at sea for 24 days during World War Two. He was 52 years old. What was his mission when he went down?

Ventures Update October 2015

695 Riverview Drive

We have made steady improvement on the apartment building.

  • The parking lot is resurfaced and it looks great.
2015 11 04 New Pic from Front 2
Notice the new pavement in the parking lot. Also, the front lights are now on a dusk to dawn sensor, so they are on all night.
  • We have good paying tenants, and have received all of our rent due since April.
  • Since July, we have averaged 8/9 occupancy.
  • We currently have 7 occupied. I remodeled one of the two empty units and we have people lined up to rent them when they are ready next week.
  • The market rent has increased to at least $650. We may look to get $675. When we purchased the building, average rent per unit was $465. If we rent the vacant units for $650, our average rent will be $560. That’s a 20% increase over 2.5 years!

I am in the process of hiring new management (again), and I am excited to have an experienced professional on board.

Simple Kneads Gluten-Free Bread

Devaunt and Tristaun have been working full-time to develop the business in Raleigh, North Carolina. It has been so successful that they have brought Nick Rapkoch in full-time as well to help with marketing and distribution. This short summary does not do justice to what they are doing in Raleigh. Simple Kneads is the real deal!

Click the picture for the Simple Kneads website.
Click the picture for the Simple Kneads website.

Kineomen

I visited Devaunt and Nick in Raleigh in August. We ate mostly gluten-free bread with lots of butter, and we talked about real estate and business. Loaves of gluten-free bread were everywhere. I felt like we were drug dealers and that was our product. Tony Montana said, “don’t get high on your own supply,” but I don’t think that applies to high-end bread.

Currently, their time is taken up on their best opportunity, which is Simple Kneads. I came away from the meeting recognizing that I have to get my traveling out of the way before I commit to starting a business or another real estate venture. My current real estate investment is enough for me for now and I am on a steep learning curve.

The Stock Market

In December of 2013, I decided to get out of the stock market completely. That money has been sitting in cash ever since, gaining near zero interest. On the day I sold, the S&P 500 closed at 1775 on 13 December. Today, it closed at 2090, up 17.7%. I owned VWIAX mutual fund at the time and I sold it for 61.46. Today, its value is 62.17, up just 1%. I missed VWIAX’s dividends of about 3.5% per year, so I actually missed out on a total of 8% of gains. The market is not up as much as I thought it was. I don’t feel so bad about my decision.

I have decided to consider stocks again for my retirement accounts using the strategy of “buy fear, sell greed.” Phrased a different way, I want to “do the right thing as an investor by standing behind good companies when nobody else will.” I do not believe that now is that time. Investors have not been really burned since 2008. Confidence is high. Money is cheap, in fact almost free to borrow. Cautious, pessimistic investors who haven’t bought into the current market look like fools for their missed opportunity. Most of the bad news has been around for a while. There is ongoing conflict in the middle east. China steadily gains ground while each country fights to devalue its currencies. Russia acts more and more boldly each year. Washington plays brinkmanship games with the federal budget. Economists continue to warn that holding interest rates at zero is a short-term band-aid that is causing the next “bubble.” Investors are numb to it and blindly throwing their money at stocks. I ask people why they are in stocks and I hear, “well, I wasn’t, but it just kept going up and I didn’t want to miss out.” Who can blame them? What else are they going to do, put it in a savings account for 0.1% interest?

It’s easy to put money in stocks right now. It feels safe. Therefore everybody is doing it. Therefore, I’m still staying out! … So then why write this whole thing? I have been out of stocks for two years.

Because now I know what I’m looking for:

I am looking for the time when the market “needs investors’ confidence.” The economists will be talking about years of recession. Investors will be just recovering from the gains they lost. The news will be talking about the “new norm, where stocks aren’t safe, and maybe even the dollar isn’t safe.” When everyone is down and out, that is the time to be positive. That is the time to use a good system to pick the winners that will see us through.

Vino de Coco

Same same. Tim Bowles is in the Philippines. It has been fun to be a part of the venture. Tim is quite a salesman and I think that coconut wine will succeed. Maybe I’ll go visit!

Click the picture for the website.
Click the picture for the website.

Shout Out to my Cuz!

Shout out to my cousin who is between jobs right now. I talked to her on the phone yesterday and she was struggling with what to do with herself on “day 3 without a job.” Hang in there, Ray, you’ll stay busy! It’s good to have some company here in “retirement.”

This week, I got back into the routine following the wedding. We played poker on Friday and it was awesome, especially since I won $17. All in a night’s work.

I hardly used my bike or truck this past week, but I used my bike more. 49 miles for the bike and 22 for the truck, bringing the total since August to 1092-1156, truck still in the lead, but closing!

Answer to last week’s quiz question: the “UP” is the Upper Peninsula and it borders Wisconsin.

This week’s quiz question: what is the primary physical difference between the earth’s arctic pole and its antarctic pole?

Produce. Persist. Own. Succeed. Fail. Care. Do. Learn. Win.