McBerkoBlog

Ruth finished her summer online community college course today with an A on her history final! So proud of her for keeping up with all her work during our trip. Now she can fully relax for the rest of the trip, or as much as that’s possible on nights you’re sharing a tent with your 9 year-old sister. :) Ruth’s other big win today was figuring out how to set up her new phone. She got locked into a recovery cycle where she’d have to wait a week to recover her account because she had no way to MFA in with her existing phone’s screen broken. She realized that since the phone was still working, she could guess where to press on the totally black screen to enter her passcode and then approve the new login request. Clever!  We had a great day with Joe, Alex, Anna, and Will this day, driving up to the mountains over the Continental Divide to hike around Pass Lake. On the scenic drive there, we saw rock climbers and even bighorn sheep on the cliffs. At the lake, we threw rocks in the lakes ...

On Thursday morning, we had breakfast, packed up camp, and headed to Denver to see Joe, Alex, and the kids. The girls were so excited to see their cousins! But first, we stopped at an old ghost town named St. Elmo that AI recommended to us. Pretty drive there up a mountain along one of the beautiful rocky streams that seem to be everywhere in CO. We saw few cars and worried we were headed to nowhere, when we finally popped out at the town. We made the quickest possible pit stop at the stinkiest outhouse before heading back to the main attraction- chipmunks!  The tiny town is known for its tame chipmunks, and the general store sells bags of seeds to feed them. Feeding wild animals is a no go generally, but this was so much fun and the girls were utterly delighted! Chipmunks would run right over you or sit on you, and eat right out of your hand. Zadie was a Snow White, with 3-4 chipmunks surrounding her at times. Ruth had similar luck - there were hungry chipmunks everywhere   A...

Back to bullet points for time saving! Long driving day from Amarillo through part of New Mexico and into Colorado. Stopped for some Mexican food where the waiter kept teasing Zadie. (“You wanted the cheeseburger, right?”) Restocked at Walmart before the park.  While Ruth was driving, phones beeped with an “Imminent Threat Alert” about a dust storm warning that we should prepare for a sudden drop to zero visibility. Yikes! Thankfully it wasn’t that bad, though our car still shows the aftermath of the    dust storm.  Got to visitor center right before they closed. They warned of lighting earlier (very dangerous up on the dunes), and it was still sprinkling. That rain made the sledding decision for us - you can rent sleds for the dunes, but it doesn’t really work when wet.  By the time they closed, the sprinkling had stopped and we set up camp and made dinner.  Headed to the dunes for sunset and instantly realized how hard it was going to be to walk up a sand...

So quickly I’ve stopped posting updates! Thank goodness we’ve been writing updates daily in our “Trip Bible”, the folder with pages for each day with all our travel confirmation numbers, hotel addresses, etc. - everything we might need if we have no cell service, a not infrequent case in mountains or ranch lands. In the trip bible, we wrote planned itineraries for some days, or at least options of things we may want to do, so we’re updating that as we go with final activities, notes, and memories.  Given that I’m over a week behind at this point, I’m switching to placeholder bullet points in an attempt to catch up a bit. I’m telling myself I’ll update these later with more detail.  Alma: Stopped on the way to OK City in this city’s Popeye Park for a picnic lunch. “Spinach City.” This small town is adorable! Zillions of flowers and other plants lining the streets downtown.  Oklahoma City: Stayed in Bricktown, cute area with a little river walk.  Hot afternoon (90s aga...

So apparently Little Rock, AR is not a hopping place to be on a Sunday! We had planned a pretty chill day since most of the sights (like Central High School) are closed on Sunday. After two days of museums, I figured we could skip the Clinton library and instead walk around the riverside park and eat at the big food hall downtown. Well, turns out that food hall is closed on Sundays (oops!), so with a hangry Zadie, we ended up at a the closest option nearby, a Flying Saucer. She was happy with a grilled cheese and tomato soup, and we didn’t mind having a beer.  The riverside park was lovely, with a ton of sculptures, nice splash pad, and great landscaping. We spent some time watching all the moss-covered turtles in the wetland area until we started wilting in the heat. This string of days in the 90s is a killer! We’re revising the plan for the next few days to spend more time indoors, especially during mid-afternoon. Thank goodness that almost everywhere we’re staying has a pool. We...

Happy Independence Day from Memphis!  After another hotel breakfast, we drove from Huntsville to Memphis, listening to our 4th of July ‘Merica playlist along the way. Our first stop in Memphis was the National Civil Rights Museum, which certainly lived up to expectations - what a well-done museum. The museum is located at the former Lorraine Motel where MLK Jr. was assassinated, but isn’t focused on his life and death. Before you move through the history of the civil rights movement from early slavery days to the present, there was an art gallery themed “Black Joy” which featured some local artists. Perfect way to spend our afternoon, highly recommend.  We checked into our hotel downtown next to the river - we wanted to be close enough to walk to Beale Street and the fireworks. Before trips, we often make lists of local specialties to watch for on menus, and of course dry rub Memphis ribs made it on the list. We found a place that had one vegetarian option for me, while the re...

Fun day in Huntsville, AL. Another hot day so we were glad to have plans inside. We had a shortish drive and didn’t realize there’d be a time change, so we had extra time at the museum here in Rocket City. We toured the museum, saw a planetarium show about our solar system, and even did a virtual reality experience round-trip to the moon. There were many interactive exhibits here, and Zadie pushed every button she came across. :)  By the time the museum closed at 5, we were ready for some pool time, but a thunderstorm ruined those plans and drenched us in the process. Apologies again to Zadie for not handing her the extra umbrella I was holding, not that mine helped me much! (Arrived at hotel to find emergency vehicles all around the entrance, so we ran through the parking lot. Wouldn’t be a McB vacation unless we get drenched at least once.) In addition to getting drenched, we were also surprised here to find that our kitchenette had no way to cook other than a microwave. Oops! We...

Day 1 Finally made it to trip start time! Day 1 was mostly about getting across the state, so we drove straight to Asheville then stopped for lunch at a yummy vegan place.  After some browsing around local stores and ice cream for the girls, we headed over to a very short visit to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Even though it was a quick trip, we saw several elk and got to cool off wading in the river.  We made it to the campground by dinner time, then Bill & I set up camp while the girls swam. We all needed the cooldown time - hot day! Sushi bowl dinner at the campground with food Bill prepped at home the day before, delicious. Thank goodness it cooled down at night so we could sleep comfortably. We’re in hotels from now on until we reach Colorado.  Day 2 Packed up camp and stopped by Mingo Falls before we left for Tennessee.  Loved the scenic drive along the Ocoee River where we saw tons of rafters and kayakers in the whitewater. We stopped for a picnic lu...

Dear reader - and here I'm speaking primarily to myself, as I'm writing mainly to document these memories for my own future enjoyment - I must apologize. I barely captured anything here about our Costa Rica trip in summer 2024, and nothing at all about our two weeks in Prague and Vienna in 2025. Maybe someday I'll catch up, but in the meantime, let's forge ahead! This summer we're staying in the US. Time for a nearly 6-week long road trip! Why now? Ruth will be a senior in high school next year, so this might (?) be the last time we can all do such a long trip together. Bill quit his job in April (yay for FIRE, aka Financial Independence / Retire Early... but that's a whole separate post), so we've got this short window where we all have the time freedom to do it.  Here's the plan: Leg 1 - Raleigh west to Denver. We'll visit Asheville, Chattanooga, Huntsville, Memphis, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, and Great Sand Dunes National Park along the...