Dedicated route, round 1

We had a really nice and relaxing weekend at home prior to starting our dedicated run. We got to SLC about noon on Sat, dropped the trailer, and went home. Our dispatch got us home a day or so earlier than we normally will. We enjoyed sitting around, fixing some food to take with us, and restocking our supplies. It is not easy to shop when you're on the road 24/7 in a semi. Can't exactly just pull into a grocery store parking lot somewhere with the tractor and trailer.
We had been told by the dispatchers at the Salt Lake terminal that our load would probably be ready about 7am. We were scheduled for a 10 am pick up. Cool, we'll get some extra time on the load! We finally headed out about 7:30 and surprisingly, traffic wasn't too bad getting out of town.
We got a few hours up the road on I-80 in Wyoming, and heard about the interstate being shut down! WHAT??!!! Everyone said that parking past Little America was almost non-existent, so we found a nice little rest area just prior that exit, sent in our detained notice, and parked. Apparently there was a bad snow storm the previous nite, and there was a bad accident where a tanker exploded and burnt up the road. Sure hope the driver got out ok.
Well, we waited about an hour and a half and heard the road was open at Rock Springs where it previous had been shut down for east bound. We started out again, go 30 min down the road and heard it was still shut down between Rawlins and Laramie. DAMM, so we pulled off and waited another hour until we got the all clear. 2 1/2 hrs down the tubes. We sent a message to our dispatch and asked for the original delivery time to be reinstated (they shorted us the 3hrs we left early, sneaky people). No problem, got the time back, so we're still lookin good, gotta be in Aurora, Ill by 1600hrs on Wed. We drove till about 4:30 am which was just east of Des Moines and sleep for about 3hrs. We still got in about 1:15pm so it was a good trip. Next chore was to pick an empty and get over to Gary, In. Easier said than done. There is no straight route over there, and the best route was all under construction. Go figure! Anyway, we did it, just took a little longer than it should have, but hell, we have untill 4am in the morning to get there!
We arrived here about 3:30pm, dropped the empty, and parked in the back of the lot for the night. It is kinda nice to relax in the middle of a run. We keep feeling like we should do something, or the Qualcomm will go off with some unexpected routing, etc. NOPE, all is good, fixed some braats and potatoe salad we brought with us, and kicked back watching tv. I think we mite be able to get used to this. A hard day, then an easy one. Now it will be a couple of long days to get back to Salt Lake, pick up a load, go back to Aurora, then on over here to Gary. Next time, we won't have he 12hr wait. The weekend loads are pre-loaded, so it will be ready whenever we get here. We'll hook up, and head for Salt Lake. The harder we run on the second time around, the more time we'll have at home. Gotta balance it tho, don't wanna be totally wiped out when we get there.
Bottom line is so far, so good.
Till next time, keep it safe out there.