HI all!
We made the drive in record time yesterday. The road trip was uneventful except for one thing and nothing slowed us down. In fact Ruth was up early so as we could get going. We stopped off to pick up the Iowa grandchild, then stopped off at "Denny's" for breakfast. Once feed, we headed down the freeway system. It didn't take long for the truck cab to get quite as my sidekicks fell back to sleep.
We did see one thing of interest as we drove across Wis. As we headed towards Madison on I90, I looked over at the northbound traffic and saw a "What the Heck is that" rig heading the other way. As I was mulling over what it could be, I heard on the radio that a special rig was transporting a "DRYER" of sorts to Minesota. I listen with intend, because I may have just seen it, but the radio DJ didn't know much about it. The only thing he knew as that it was so big, it would block traffic where ever it was at. Net is with that comment, I blew it off that the rig I saw was not it as they would not block a interstate moving such a big rig.
Later the DJ came back on the air and gave everyone a update per the highway patrol.. The rig was traveling at a slow rate of speed on the freeway(I-90), and the highway patrol was assisting. The unit including the tractor trucks was over 200 feet in length. It could travel at speeds up to 35-40 miles per hour, but it would slow to 5 miles per hour anytime it reached a bridge. This insure that the vibration of movement didn't damage the bridge as it traveled across it. It also was 16 ft across, so traffic couldn't pass unless it slowed down and moved over at an overpass.
The other thing I saw different about the transport system was this. They had semi-tractors at both ends. Because it was so heavy and also because it was 200 ft in length the back tractor was hooked up special. This allowed it to steer the back end around corners, much like the big firetrucks, plus I am sure it was needed to assist in pushing it down the road.
Why this was done in the daytime, is amazing. You would think they would have done it late in the night when traffic was low. Just think about how much traffic would stack up behind this rig before it pulled over a little to allow people to pass. plus at ever danger point they slowed to 5 miles per hour.
Thank God they were on the other side.
Later all
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