tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7783785316537852002011-04-21T23:59:56.777-04:00Preparations for and journal of the cross country journey of the Ulreys.MandyUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05581706852677788011noreply@blogger.comBlogger181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-82415710667350226102008-07-08T23:56:00.004-04:002008-07-09T00:31:08.293-04:00

We saw virtually no wildlife as we headed out the East exit of Yellowstone...just at couple of female elk and a bison. We didn't even bother to slow down for pictures of them. The night before on the other hand Mandy was VERY excited on our way back to the lodge after dinner last night because a small dog-like creature crossed the road in front of us...very clearly only about 10 feet in front

RickUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16440973897449920438noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-17878745672210415732008-07-07T23:02:00.005-04:002008-07-07T23:38:05.117-04:00

Man, it sure did take us forever to find an internet connection. We checked "several" Dairy Queens to no avail. We ended up making the supreme sacrifice tonight of eating in the Mural Room at the Jackson Lake Lodge. They had HONEY ROSEMARY ICE CREAM!!! It was awesome. Also, there was some wine involved with dinner, obviously. I'm typing this out as I'm staring out the huge picture windows onto

MandyUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05581706852677788011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-74264066264665828712008-07-04T00:18:00.004-04:002008-07-04T00:48:06.006-04:00

Everytime I leave I forget how much I love California. Well, northern California anyway. San Francisco is such a great city and the redwoods were absolutely amazing. The Avenue of the Giants is on the same hugeness scale as the Grand Canyon was.Rick really likes the desert, but I was so glad to be out of them. I like sleeping when there is a chill in the air. San Francisco not only has Alex,

MandyUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05581706852677788011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-27902919335851108602008-07-03T12:49:00.005-04:002008-07-04T00:58:39.129-04:00

It's been a few days since we have updated because we've been pretty busy. Since last we wrote we've gone to Phoenix all the up to the redwoods in northern California. In Phoenix we had an awesome restful day with our friends Brent and Kelly (i?). We drank beer (for the children) played a fun dice game called Right Left Center and lost badly. Kelly made some excellent pork BBQ and put out

RickUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16440973897449920438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-50171667902936742082008-06-28T11:27:00.003-04:002008-06-28T12:16:03.939-04:00

(it's a song by Wilco...it works)Partly because we went to sleep at 8pm and partly because we had a big day ahead of us, we got up at 4 and were gone from Zion by 4:30. Most of the time on this trip we're just a little unsure of what time it actually is. I didn't realize that although Arizona is on mountain time, they don't follow Daylight Savings Time. The route we took had us leave Utah, go

MandyUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05581706852677788011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-9541579005911410662008-06-27T23:10:00.005-04:002008-06-28T00:51:43.973-04:00

When last you read about our heros, they were leaving the Four Corners and had stopped for coffee near Lake Powell. Yes Marylandmom, we agree that it would be fun to rent a house boat for a week...as long as I have some meclizine. I tried to nap while Rick sang to Billy Joel for at least an hour and a half straight. We got to Zion and set up camp in time to take the 90 minute shuttle bus tour. We

RickUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16440973897449920438noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-26759370916344454842008-06-25T16:25:00.005-04:002008-06-25T16:41:04.897-04:00

We spent 2 days camping in Durango, CO at the RV site of Erin and Mike Hill as well as their wonderful children Brian and Kerry. The first day we drove through the Rockys to the towns of Silverton and Ouray. The drive itself was the main purpose of the trip. We had absolutely spectacular views. It was also the first time we had to use the Prius' engine braking feature for any significant

RickUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16440973897449920438noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-79850425509520640822008-06-24T10:59:00.003-04:002008-06-24T11:04:45.326-04:00

So I haven't downloaded photos yet but I wanted to share what we did yesterday. We had awesome breakfast burritos at the Steaming Bean Coffee shop in downtown Durango. Then we met the Hills at their RV. We took a beautiful drive through the mountains to Silverton and Ouray. At Ouray we took a little hike up to a very impressive waterfall.We came back to the camp site and tried our hand at making

MandyUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05581706852677788011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-33974552349424004752008-06-23T10:45:00.003-04:002008-06-23T10:52:44.443-04:00

We do. And we decided not to go that way. Yesterday was a very long extraterrestrial adventure. First stop was Carlsbad city for a car wash (which turned out to be useless at getting the Mississippi bugs off the front of the car) and grocery shopping. Then we headed up to Roswell.We visited the UFO Museum. It was worth the hour and $5. It was the first real kitchy thing we did. There was a

MandyUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05581706852677788011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-36806834392943507902008-06-23T09:55:00.004-04:002008-06-23T10:29:17.632-04:00

We started the morning at the lovely Guadalupe National park bright and early. I woke (amazingly) just before sunrise. Our original itinerary had us hitting up White Sands and Roswell for the day. We decided to skip White Sands in favor of the Very Large Array closer to the middle of the country. Roswell was a quick and fun stop. We went into the UFO Museum and Research center. The thing

RickUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16440973897449920438noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-43131041942748168782008-06-23T01:59:00.005-04:002008-06-23T02:07:43.707-04:00

(Note: This post was written last night but posted this evening as soon as we were able to hit a wifi) deep in the heart of Texas. Actually made it all the way from Austin to Carlsbad New Mexico in time to see the bats leave the cave. It actually made for a good comparison. While there are significantly more bats at Carlsbad than under the Congress bridge in Austin, the bats at Carlsbad take

MandyUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05581706852677788011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-33015550828902852382008-06-20T09:36:00.002-04:002008-06-20T09:45:10.741-04:00

Yesterday was the first day when we started noticing a distinct shift in the vegetation as we cruised by. Without regard for the topography much of the first third of the US looks very much the same from a vegetation standpoint. At our stops to and in Missouri I saw many of the same plants that we have back home in Maryland...including unpleasant ones like stinging nettles and poison ivy to the

RickUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16440973897449920438noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-30593870660659711462008-06-20T09:05:00.003-04:002008-06-20T09:30:10.567-04:00

...but Texas wants you anyway. Man, Texas is BIG. We were through Louisiana before noon yesterday and spent the rest of the day going through Texas. We're not even half-way through. Regarding our pace, now is when we do slow down a bit. We actually looked at our sketchy outline for the trip yesterday and I think we got a day ahead of schedule. Probably the trip from Missouri to New Orleans. We

MandyUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05581706852677788011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-10977220566468331522008-06-18T17:54:00.002-04:002008-06-18T17:59:25.699-04:00

Thus far the Prius has been great. It's been handling well on the roads and did well in the mini-mountains so far. It's worst gas mileage was 41 MPG in the mountains but the rest of the time we've been averaging 45-46 MPG. To and from work I normally get 47-48 MPG so I blame the loss of a few on Mandy's driving. Or, it could be the fact that we're carrying a lot more weight in the car than

RickUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16440973897449920438noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-90209203620791734062008-06-18T16:43:00.003-04:002008-06-20T09:27:27.057-04:00

Updated to include photos added since we have a better internet connection.We made excellent time yesterday. We got from Columbia MO all the way to Baton Rouge LA (although we did get in around midnight). For the sake of speed we took the interstate all the way to Memphis, TN. It was around 3:30 when we got there so we popped downtown for some ribs. Rick was singing Walkin' in Memphis almost the

MandyUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05581706852677788011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-23991803234763237992008-06-16T23:09:00.004-04:002008-06-16T23:41:30.310-04:00

Ok, so we're not in Kansas City but we saw signs for it all day so I've been singing songs from Oklahoma anyway. We are west of the Mississippi in Columbia, Missouri. Yesterday we traveled from Southern Maryland through PA, West Virginia (just a little bit), Ohio, Indiana, and most of Illinois. We were pretty excited to get going so we left at about 4am. We stopped at the Dawes Arboretum in Ohio

MandyUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05581706852677788011noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-7536566279095266532008-06-14T20:12:00.002-04:002008-06-14T20:24:10.482-04:00

Today was our first day of vacation but we didn't make it far. We headed down to my parents house in Southern Maryland for my Gran's 80th birthday. We had a great time and it was a wonderful start to our trip.We start in earnest in the morning. Our rough itinerary follows as well as some pictures from the day.In order of anticipated arrival:Columbia, MissouriNew OrleansAustin, TXCarlsbad

RickUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16440973897449920438noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-778378531653785200.post-78592347718943064872008-06-13T06:10:00.002-04:002008-06-13T06:13:21.487-04:00

Just one day until we begin our road trip! We'll post our projected itinerary and give updates as we can on our trip. There's just a little bit of last minute packing to do before we take off tomorrow morning. Our first stop is my parents house in southern Maryland for my Gran's 80th birthday.RickU

RickUhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16440973897449920438noreply@blogger.com2