Dedicated, round 1 complete

We made to SLC from Gary, Ind about 4:30am and was told our next load would actually be ready in about 30 min. WAY COOL, we'll get some extra time on this load, or get in early to Aurora, and get in early to Gary, and get in early to SLC! :) We got back out of town about 5am and headed toward Aurora. We did not get any sleep in Salt Lake, so we fizzled out on the way to Ill, and parked for about 4hrs in Iowa, just east of Des Moines. It was really close to the interstate, so it was abit noisy there. We got up and headed on to Aurora. After parking the trailer, and hooking up to the empty, we headed on to Gary. This time traffic was not too bad being Sat morning about 10am.

They had the trailer waiting at Gary for us. We did spend a little more time than planned tho, the tandems on the trailer did not want to slide for us. This is the 2nd time we have had that problem with trailers here. When the trailers are heavy, the rear axles (tandems) can be moved forward or back to balance the weight on the drive tires on the tractor. Some states have a maximum distance for the tandems from the king pin on the trailer, limiting how much they can be slid back, so that has to be a concern as well. Usually, the terminals want the tandems all the way rearward so the trailer is more stable when loading it with the fork lifts. When we pick them up, we move them back forward by setting the brakes on the trailer, then put the tractor in reverse and push the trailer rearward while the axles remain in place. They are on rails, with pins that hold or release them. After we get them close to where they should be, we go to the scales and weigh the entire rig. We get weights for the front axle, the drive tires, then the rear trailer axles, and adjust if necessary.

We headed out of Gary about 11am Sat, and our GPS said we had about a 10am arrival time if we didn't stop. That would be really nice, to have most of the day Sunday at home, and all day Monday. However, our bodies caught up with us, and we needed some sleep enroute. We stopped between Omaha and Lincoln for about 4hrs, then made our way home. We finally got in about 4pm Sunday, so still had some time to enjoy the weekend. I immediately took off on the motorcycle for short ride. I have been having motorcycling withdrawls, so it was nice, even if a short ride.

Got up this morn. to see it snowing here! GRRRRR, we were hoping winter was over. They have nice weather during the week, then the snow follows us for our time at home. OH well, eventually spring has to come,,,,,,,,,doesn't it??

First week of the dedicated route was ok. We need to figure out a better way to run the 2nd round instead of trying to go back to back with no down time on the run. We were trying to get back to SLC as soon as we could Sunday. We may have to settle for Sunday early eve instead of noonish.

We figured out this week we hauled approx 125,000lbs of freight between SLC-Aurora, and Gary-SLC. First 2 loads were around 27000lbs, the 3rd around 35000, and the last from Gary to SLC was 40000.

The route also gives us just over 5700 miles/week. Not bad $ either. It's about as many miles as we were getting before, but now we have a day and a half off at home. I think this will work out good for us as soon as we figure out the easiest way to run it.