RickMcCharles.com

More videos have been produced from Dave Adlard’s Expedition Idaho Race. This is my favourite so far.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Gear Junkie)

Hanging around an expensive ski resort in Kellogg for a week, I couldn’t help but notice that many of the redneck bubbas look like this guy.

That surprised me.

I assumed that obesity in America was still mostly southeast, in poor and ethnic populations.

Mississippi fat, Colorado and the Pacific northwest lean.

Is the map wrong?

Treehugger – You Are Where You Eat: Obesity Maps of North America

Yet the men I see here at Silver Mountain Resort, a mountain biking mecca, are affluent and white.

The men of Kellogg could certainly declare: “In your face, Springfield!”

There are old men. And fat men. But very few old, fat men.

Here’s a terrific short video showing what a week long Adventure Race is like. Top teams sleep only 2-4hrs a day on average.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

All 13 teams made it to the finish. They bike a “victory lap” (3-5hrs) up a mountain to finish at the Booze and Blues fest (PDF) in Kellogg Idaho.

expeditionidahorace.com

At the Expedition Idaho Race.

I’m down in Kellogg, Idaho volunteering for a week long Adventure Race.

Here are racers from around the world, still clean and happy at the START …

They’ll race from Sunday 10am until the following Saturday night, finishing at a Blues and Beer Fest. Nearly a full week on bike, paddle and feet.

Check out our website. (I’m working on the BLOG portion.)

The perfect surface for jogging, me thinks.

That photo is from Lausanne, Switzerland. But my favourite memories are of running the chip trails along the South Saskatchewan river in Saskatoon.

… a mainer to my vein

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I can QUIT coffee any time. I’ve done it a dozen times.

Thanks Warren.

Your brain surgeon should be very well paid.

But why should a dentist be a millionaire?

by Sarah Lorge Butler for CBS MoneyWatch.com:

Cost of the (2) crowns: $1,395 apiece. Cost of foundation fillings, or “cores” to put the crowns on: $326 apiece. Total bill, if you’re scoring at home: $3,442.

His dentist sold him membership into an office savings plan for $319 for the year. So that saves him 20% on all dental procedures and gives him two free cleanings. Knock off 20% (but add back in the $319) and we’re down to $3072.60 on this bit of drilling.

When I look at this bill, I wonder why I obsess about the weekly price fluctuations of Cheerios or the shrinking size of a can of tuna. All the economical choices a family makes in a year can be wiped out by a trip to the dentist. No wonder people are going to Thailand and Mexico for dental work. …

read more

Is $3000 over-priced for 2 crowns?

What is the cost for the materials?

How much are those working on your crowns paid?

How much does the dentist pocket?

If we knew those numbers, I’m guessing that we’d agree our dentist is ripping us off.

There are over 1000 comments on that post, most feeling ripped off.

A stranger recently contacted me for advice on my dentist, Dr. Lorenia Estrada, in La Paz, Mexico. I enthusiastically recommended her.

If you suspect your dentist is ripping you off, get a quote from Mexico. … The only down side is that you have very little recourse if unhappy with the work there.

Thanks Dana.

Here’s how I skied the LAST DAY EVER on my old boots.

Completely unlatched, I could feel the wind.

(I have bunions and any pressure at all on them is agony.)

My ancient skis and bindings have had it, too.

Any advice on where to shop for skis in the Calgary area?

Good end-of-season sell offs?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much snow at Sunshine. Rocco cannot recall this much snow in the Banff Rockies ever.

Here’s one of the slave Aussie staff shoveling snow off the roof of a building at the base of Goat’s Eye Mountain.

And the snow is still falling. They’ve had 30cm over the past 72hrs as I post.

Ski on week days, if you can. The runs were empty today.