Recovery

Just a short note here to catch up on our stay in Anchorage.

Ann and I were up early this 16th of June and headed off to explore.  No telling why -- we got in late, but are excited about being in Alaska -- that and I'm sure we're still on EDT.  It's still a bit overcast this morning, perhaps a bit more than when we turned in last night.

Kudos to Alice who suggested tacking an extra day on either end of the trip.  I could only imagine how interesting (and tired) it would have been going to bed at midnight, getting up by 0400 to be ready to have bags outside our rooms by 0500, then off to the train yard for an all day ride to Denali.  Instead, on our way out to explore we got to watch today's batch of tourists heading for buses and the train yard.  

At 0630 it's also apparently way early by Alaskan, or at least Anchorage standards.  As we moved about the downtown area we did a lot of window shopping because that was nearly all that was available -- good for getting our bearings before breakfast.  We weren't out more than 10 minutes when Ann found a quilting place I somehow knew we'd visit again.  We also ambled down to a small terrace overlooking the rail yard from which we'd depart for Denali tomorrow. 

 

To this day we have no idea what the people in the pic below are doing.  I got them in the telephoto of my camera and initially concluded this was some kind of art, a set of statues in the water, because I could not see any movement at all.  Ann took a look as well and agreed.  Later we made a close comparison of two photos and found some movement, so the statue theory went out the window.

 

The McKinley Explorer above will be the kind of touring car we'll be taking tomorrow.   

The one place that was open early was Trader Jack's.  While on the outside it had the look of a junky tourista place, it had an eclectic range of gifts, generally of good to excellent quality.  While the low end was covered by fairly typical post cards and tee shirts, the high end of the spectrum was an Eagle with maybe a two foot wing span on a pedestal.  You could pick that up for right around $30,000, including the pedestal (or so the sign said).  (We didn't.)

By this time the rest of our group is making their way down.  After gathering for breakfast, it's still somewhat overcast as we make our way around to many of the same places Ann and I hit earlier. 

Ann finally got to buy a package of Alaskan fabric from the quilting place for a future project.  

Yes, that is a Wyland Whaling Wall right there in the middle of Anchorage.

Eventually we take our driver - the former state trooper - of the night before's suggestion and go to the Alaska Museum. 

Someone spends some money on this place.  It features excellent exhibits of Alaskan history and native Alaskan culture.  It starts thousands of years ago with glaciers and the land bridge between Asia and North America, covers various migrations and the Russian and American eras, and culminates in the Alaskan pipeline. They have some excellent maps showing the various tribes who've inhabited the state, and both artifacts and movies of various eras.  They've done a good job of capturing the sweep of people and lifestyles.  

If you go to Anchorage, it's worth the time to visit.  Among other things, I picked up a copy of a Rand-McNally map of Alaska in the gift shop.  This turned out to be useful in getting my bearings for the following days as different guides .

Around 1430 we ended up at the Snow Goose, one of what we were told were four breweries in Alaska, and one of two in Anchorage.   Nice place to have a drink and some appetizers while watching aircraft take off from Merrill Airport.  

To get ready for dinner we headed off on a nature trail for about an hour before returning to the hotel to clean up. 

The Brewhouse, one of the other breweries in Alaska, is right across the street from the Westmark so it's an easy choice for dinner.  Quayla took good care of us to round out a relaxing day.  Very good food and service.

I'm still getting used to the idea of broad daylight at 2300.  After a lot of walking, eating and sociable amount of drinking, though, it's pretty easy nodding off for the night. 

Off and running . . . again

Ann has been talking about a cruise trip to Alaska for over a year now.  I've heard cruises are great fun; a relaxing way to vacation and see some areas of the world one might not see otherwise.  It's 15 Jun 2011.  The township troops are cleaning out the fire hydrant across the street,

and the firewood has been stacked. 

We're finally off the see what all the chatter is about. 

There are six of us traveling from Waynesboro PA so we went in together to get a ride to Baltimore Washington International (KBWI).  

Kevin Kline of Phantom Shadow Limo showed up right on time and made the trip uneventful though interesting.  We were able to help along the way by suggesting a route originally offered by Ron Vickroy:  I-270 to 29 to 100 to 295 to 195 to BWI.  This completely eliminates the hassle of using I-695 around Baltimore and frequently has substantially less traffic even at rush hour. 

Kevin is a former Navy ship emergency response guy who served aboard the Eisenhower.  He now does firefighting in the District of Columbia and Shippensburg PA, among other places.  We chatted about firefighting all the way to BWI. 

Kevin was somewhat concerned that there is a trend away from volunteer firefighters.  This is something I had been told last year while starting a financial planning business for police, firefighters, and emergency medical services (EMS) people.  Ray Hinkle, the President of the Myersville MD Fire Department (forgive if I don't have the exact title) made much the same point. 

As I traveled the area between Martinsburg WV, Sykesville MD, Hanover PA and McConnellsburg PA I found an interesting correlation.  The closer one gets to larger cities, the more professional, unionized firefighters dominate the departments.  The further away or more remote the location (eg, Wolfsville MD) the more they are dominated by volunteers. 

There was an interesting dynamic at play.  One fella suggested this was just a societal shift with city folks simply demanding the service with no intention of contributing more than taxes.  This was especially true the closer I got to Baltimore and the District.  I'm not sure how "societal" this might be, but there are plenty of forces at work pushing to such a conclusion. 

Marshall Botkin, a long time volunteer in Frederick, suggested this was the inevitable result of establishing broader and in some cases higher standards for firefighters.  If I recall the conversation correctly, he noted that the list of services provided by fire departments had grown over the years.  It now includes a dizzying array of activities, some only marginally related to firefighting. 

Almost everyone will think to call the fire department to rescue cats from trees -- a function more of who has a tall enough ladder than firefighting.  Well, those calls add up and pretty soon some pretty obscure jobs become fire department jobs.  Some of these new services require formal training and certification, and can take a lot of time and cost a lot of money.  It's one thing for a volunteer willingly run into a burning building, quite another to spend a lot of money and uncompensated time to do so. 

Another sign of this movement to "professionalization" is the separation of EMS within, and in some cases from, Fire Departments.  It seemed the larger the city and more professional the services, the more EMSs separated from fire (though in many cases cohabiting the same or next door facilities).

It's interesting to watch for signs of this sort of balkanization of volunteer from professional services.  There is no doubt one gets a higher quality of specialized service from highly trained professionals.  On the other hand, to the extent one creates barriers to volunteerism, I can't help but think this is not good for society in general, especially if it contributes to citizens merely expecting to pay for services and not be part of the rhythm of civic life.  It costs a lot more to pay for all that stand by labor as well.  This should probably be in the minds of people when they demand more and more services from their cities and local governments. 

We finally arrive at BWI.  Our Delta flights connect through Detroit Metropolitan (KDTW) to Ted Stevens in Anchorage (PANC).  The first is 1:40 flight with not much to report.  The second was scheduled for 7:07, but the crew made up a little time enroute with a small tail wind.  Both aircraft were packed so either there are a lot of people vacationing or Delta is trimming routes to keep occupancy high. 

By the time we arrived in Anchorage at around 2300 local time, many of the Holland American services at the airport were getting close to shutting down.  After getting our bags, we boarded the last bus to our hotels.  Our driver turned out to be a retired Alaska State Trooper.  Retirees seem to be a common in the local bus driving and tourist support business.  He gave us a running dialogue on Anchorage which is the largest city in Alaska.  At around 290,000 people, it's roughly 40% of the state population. 

We passed sections of the airport, he noted how important aviation is to the state.  Alaska has an extraordinarily large number of pilots and planes per capita.  This is critical because there are only a few roads and one rail line in a state more than twice as large as Texas and with an extremely long coastline.  The capital Juneau, for example, is only accessible by sea or plane, and there are large numbers of towns and villages both on the coast and inland whose only practical connection to the outside world is by plane.  Anchorage is home to the largest float plane base in the world.

Our trooper also offered suggestions for places to visit while in Anchorage, but noted that virtually everything one would want to see is right downtown between 2nd and 6th streets. 

  

By the time we got to our hotel, the Holland services were already closed, but registration and the bag drag upstairs to the 14th floor of the Westmark Hotel were easy enough.  Even though it was nearing midnight, the view from there  was spectacular, and bright.  Night was not settling on the city.  Our trooper noted we were already into the midnight sun season, and so we were.  From our balcony you could see the Sen. Ted Stevens Airport where we had arrived off to the right, and the Chugach Mountains to the left.  

That view turned out to be a great way to call it a day.  Traveling companions thought so, too.

1 - Financial Planning

This is an interest which will, from time to time, occupy my thoughts and provide an opportunity to help people.  Where in the world besides America is there so great an opportunity to become who you most want to be, to have and provide for a family, to become financially independent, to be free to enjoy liberty.  And yet, money and finance is an area in which the vast majority of people are sadly under-educated, misinformed, misled, and generally lost. 

But wait, you say.  This can't possibly be true, you say.  You know people who "obviously" do well, you say.  How can I make such a gross generalization, you say? 

Okay.  Let's break it down.

-  Majority of people:  There is a Department of Labor statistic that says only 10% of Americans are financially independent at age 65.  They go on to say between 70 - 80% become completely dependent on friends, family and social security. 

So 90% of Americans do not make it to financial independence and most of those are truly dependent on someone.  That's in a country where you will make $1,000,000 between ages 20 and 65 if you earn $22,222.22 per year each and every year.  No raises, no cost of living increases, just a little over $22K.  Think about that.  

By way of comparison, the median income in the USA was around $50K in 2009 according to the US Census.  That would be earnings of $2.25M over the same 45 years.  The conclusion one should draw is there's a huge part of the country making more than $22K each and every year, and $22K is a very minimal income figure.  

But I digress.  Back to the minimum to make $1M.  

Sure, you say, but you have to pay for housing, food, clothing, taxes . . . you can't do anything with $22K, right?   

This kind of thought ought to scare you.  Not only will you be surrounded by people who are not planning their financial lives well enough to make it on their own throughout their lives, they will defend their right to do so.  Some, maybe even "many", of those will demand support "from someone" when things go poorly.  Politically, this is good for demagogs and zealots, but bad for the country.  More important, it's bad for you.  It leads to the whole "haves and have nots" discussion.  Though silly, all manner of uncivil behavior comes along with this, including envy and greed.  Just think, in one fell swoop you can nail down two of the seven deadly sins by pursuing this line of thinking.


And by the way, you can make an extra $500,000 with that $22K a year.  How?  Put 10% each month, about $185, into investments earning 6% over inflation on average for that 45 years.  That's how. 

-  Under-educated:  That last example is a great lead in to this subject.  When was the last time you saw a course in high school or college, attended by most students, that talked about income, expenses and budgets?  How about debt?  I won't even ask about insurance and investments.  When did you, as a parent, sit down with your children to talk just about income and expenses?  Did anyone sit down and teach you about how money works, or have you, like most of us, simply blundered into one financial encounter after another, picking up whatever you could along the way. 

Well, the latter is largely my case.  I actually had a few courses in college, but got little financial training elsewhere.  A financial life follows a fairly predictable path with enough variability to account for individual tastes.  It is charted by a series of fairly standard and expensive events along the way.  Among these are marriage, a home, children, higher education, occasional weddings, trips, and a comfortable retirement.  Our first financial adviser outlined this for us 34 years ago. 

So what do people actually plan for?  That's plan, not day-dream, wish, hope or pray for.  To have a plan means one must have "written goals" to achieve by specific dates.  One must have thought about "how" to achieve those goals.  The goals part of this is pretty easy.  Start with the marriage, home, retirement sequence above and add or subtract whatever you want. 

The planning part takes some extra effort.  If you built a home, you would buy lumber and nails, plumbing and electrical supplies, and other materials all in accordance with plans usually prepared by, and construction subsequently supervised by, an architect or engineer.  Well, the raw materials used for financial planning are goals, income, expenses, savings, debt, insurance, investments and taxes, among others.  

The typical family financial plan generally does not benefit from the efforts of a financial engineer or architect.  Instead, plans are formed by individuals and families around the kitchen table, families without any particular knowledge of, and therefore a certain reluctance, to apply the raw materials to their situation.  Some of those plans work out.  Others not so much.  How many?  I'd refer you to the Department of Labor statistics above.

We should be clear here, though -- people are not stupid.  They just lack some or all of the grounding to make well conceived decisions about their plan to achieve their goals.  They muddle through the best they can, and are generally content with their efforts in a stable or growing economy.  They worry a lot in poorer economies.  They can do better, but need help they can trust.

-  Misinformed and misled:  When you hear talk on radio or television about finance, do you immediately think of bankers and billionaires? 401Ks and company matching?  The movie "Wall Street"?  Does the term "debentures" give you one of those glazed "thousand mile stares"?  When you hear the financial news on television or radio is it all about daily highs and lows for the Dow and S&P 500, a handful of "best performers", and do you get the sense you should run right out and buy or sell something?

If so, I can confidently assure you only the 401k comment is close to relevant to a basic financial plan for most folks.  Bankers may or may not have something to do with it depending on how much debt one has taken on (and that could very well be a bad thing).  It's fair to say most of us are not billionaires and are therefore very far removed from their particular financial issues.  There are a lot of very smart people out there who will tell you free of charge that chasing stock performance is a fool's errand.  And Wall Street?  Really?

Think about the topics mentioned above.  Much of what you hear sounds a lot like Las Vegas or the lottery, glitz and glamor, and most is a distraction.  One can actually make financial planning a great gamble by chasing performance.  News flash -- people like Warren Buffet are not gambling.  They are making judgments about which companies will profitably endure.  If financial security and independence rank among your desired lifetime outcomes, you need not take great gambles.  This is especially true if you use time to your advantage.  Why allow yourself to be distracted from the elements necessary to construct a serious plan with an above average chance of achieving your goals? 

Goals, income, expenses, savings, debt, insurance, investments and taxes, are among the foundations of financial planning.  That's where the initial focus should be. 

-  Generally lost:  So let's summarize.  A large number of Americans are unsuccessfully muddling through their financial lives.  Most have plenty of income, and think they are doing fine.  Most are not well informed of the basic elements of a financial plan and would not recognize a deficient or unbalanced plan for just this reason.  What they hear in the press and on television, with few exceptions, is generally unhelpful even from the financial news networks. 

I'll go out on a limb and say most people could use a financial planner they trust.  Yes, I am a financial planner -- got all the licenses and have advised people.  Before that I was an Air Force officer, and later a Department of Defense contractor.   We were lucky to meet Lamar Smith, our first financial adviser, who did the leg work to get us on a solid financial path.  After 34 years of Lamar and his successors' efforts, we're on a solid financial path.  I am now teaching as many as will allow me about financial planning.

The point of all this is if you don't have a financial adviser or coach, and don't have the time to devote to learning all you need to know to plan effectively, you probably need one.  You should shop around to find one who will address the fundamentals:  goals, income, expenses, savings, debt, insurance, investments and taxes.  You should get comfortable sharing your financial life with whomever you choose.  At the same time, you should read up on these topics so you can participate intelligently in planning your financial life. 

What do you think?

Homeward bound (I wish I was . . . )

Yes, I know that's Simon and Garfunkel, but that is the leading sentiment today. . . and in fact we will be headed home, right after hitting Target #3, Graceland.  It's 29 May 2011.

I admit I've always enjoyed Elvis' music, but I never had any great desire to visit Graceland.  It struck me as excessively commercial.  That said, having come I enjoyed visiting his home.  For the tour of the home you are given a headset before boarding a bus to the house across the street from the staging area.  As you walk around the house, there are small signs telling you which numbers to push to get the discussion and any special topics related to that area.  A nice, simple system which worked well.

This would have been a really nice place to live.  The grounds are comfortable.  There are places to relax outside.  The interior is very well maintained.

It's not to my taste in all areas, but then it wasn't my place, and I'm not in the rock star business.  Even at that, the rooms I thought were overdone were, as I remember that period, pretty contemporary.  I recall seeing pictures of decorations in magazines or TV shows back then that reflected some of the looks of these rooms.  With one or two exceptions it looks like he found examples contemporary rooms he liked, and had the best in the business come in and give him a room like that.  Everything was well done - nothing cheap.   

He did seem to like mirrors, a lot, by any era's standards.  The shot above of his living room is only the start.  Here's a staircase with more,

and a formal dining room (with fewer mirrors than elsewhere).  There was some furniture in this room that both Ann and I liked. 

The kitchen is pretty good.  Ann liked it the minute she saw it.  The discussion from the headsets said this was basically the center of activity in the house which sounds like most folks' homes. 

These next two are the jungle room featuring green carpeted floors and ceilings.  Apparently this was one of Lisa's favorite rooms.

Next is a TV room featuring three TVs and mirrors all around and in the ceiling.  The recording said he heard the President watched three TVs at once, and decided he wanted to do the same.

The last room we toured in the main house was the pool room.  Ann noted that's a paisley fabric on the walls, draw together with pleats to a button in the ceiling directly over the pool table, from which the table lamp is hung.   

The grounds are a nice, with room for a stable, some open grass land, and a pool attached to the house.  He had a business office out back, and there is now a trophy room with all his gold records and a summary of various stages of his life.

As we walked through the Gold Record area, Ann overheard a small child asking her mother "What are those?" to which her mom replied "Those are records, honey.  That is how they recorded music."  Okay, now that we all feel very ancient, we'll move along.

From the house tour we are bussed back to the main reception area where you have your choice of small museums.  The first we toured was the car museum

This featured a Cadillac Convertible,















two Rolls Royces (the black one not shown)














 and an eclectic variety of other vehicles.

Then there was the airplane museum.

Although there were some pretty extravagant fixtures in these aircraft, the business end was pretty conventional.  The gold sink and gold plated seat belts were perhaps the most extravagant features on either. 

There was also a Fashion Museum, and a few lesser exhibits. 

You have to accept the premise this place is all about celebrating the life and career of a guy who made a lot of music.  A lot of very good music.  He was, like most of us, a lot of other things as well.  In addition to musician and singer, he was part actor, part business man, part carny pitchman, part family man, and part private man, among others.  Although he may have started out in very humble and simple conditions, he led a very complicated life, and did it pretty well for a long time in the glare of his willingly chosen public spotlight.  

I heard someone describe Elvis, after their visit, as a kid with way too much money and no sense about how to spend it.  Not sure I agree with that.  He was a kid no longer than the rest of us, and had clear tastes whether you like them or not.  There are critics that seize on the drugs that eventually did him in, or his broken marriage and use those negative elements to summarize the whole life.  This is the kind of assessment that sometimes passes as enlightened analysis -- one event or outcome held up as representing a whole person.  I find that simplistic and lazy.  There is more there.

I'm no great Elvis historian, not even a particularly avid fan, but I'm not aware of anything other than personal drug use that was ever even remotely illegal, and nothing else that was dangerous to those around him.  It's sad what became of him at the end.  From the looks of his estate, through, he did pretty well by his family, giving both Priscilla and Lisa an above average chance to carry on (which they've each done well).  As legacies go, that's head and shoulders above the music and all the rest.

For not even being particularly interested in going, we've sure got a lot of thoughts.  Only sure way to clear the mind is to go burn some avgas.  So back to the airport and off on our final two legs.

We have a bit of tail wind and a smooth ride.  About half way back to Frederick MD is a place called Stanton, KY (I50).  This is a little 3000 ft strip set among lush green, tree covered rolling hills.  The main attraction is the cheapest gas on the trip at $4.30.  There is no one there when we arrive -- just a self-serve pump, a small building with an open door and working plumbing, and a small business located on the field.

We're not at Stanton very long, but it seemed the kind of place one might want to visit.  Nothing extraordinary stuck out.  On this Memorial Day weekend, there are what sound like drag races going on somewhere nearby, and the occasional fire cracker.  Mostly it's just peaceful and beautiful. 

We take on 72.5 gal, inspect the indoor plumbing and begin the back taxi to rwy 24.  As we taxi Ann notices a father and daughter just off the ramp under the trees.  They must have heard us landing and drove down to see.  Dad is on a knee pointing and talking, and his daughter is waving.

We get her rolling and circle back to the north of the field.  Ann smacks me, but I can't help but waggle the wings.  It's a small encounter, but for all the scenery and famous places, its frequently small encounters with people that are most memorable.  We'll probably never get back to Stanton, but I wouldn't hesitate to see who and what was behind those trees if in the area again.

A little over two hours later, that's Frederick off the nose. 

You can always tell when the great adventure is over.  Landmark has decided to welcome us home with a splash of reality.  Good thing we got a big gulp back at Stanton.

All that's left is to put her back in the hangar.  Well, that and cleaning the bugs off the leading edges and wind screen, vacuuming, hauling out the trash . . . 

Oh, and did I mention paperwork.  Let's see: 18 legs, 37.2 hours by the Hobbs meter, 34.5 hours by the tach, 423.63 gal, 4180.6 nautical miles (4808 statute miles), engine maintenance and an oil change.  The new Duo is a success.  All the wine and wedding gifts delivered.  A few snacks and apples and a lot of laundry to bring home. 

Ann drives us back to Waynesboro.  It's late, but we stop at Applebees for an appetizer and a drink.  What have we been up to?  Not much.