When I first began working 48-states, my dispatcher was a bit unreceptive to the idea of me taking off every other weekend, not that he really has any say in the matter. Since I'm an owner-operator, he really hasn't much say in these things; I take off when I want to take off and come back to work when I want to come back to work. He told me that he wanted to make sure that I was getting enough miles and that most O/O's are constantly complaining about not getting enough miles. I don't see any point in staying out for 3-4 weeks at a shot just to be sitting on the road somewhere because there's no freight or because I'm out of hours on my 70. I'd much rather do that at home.
Still no student. I had one pre-assigned to me that I was to pick-up on my way through Omaha last week, but he was waiting on some meds to be shipped to him and he wasn't expecting them until the next day. It's a shame, too, because he was already at the halfway mark of his training and would've been a breeze to finish-off. They didn't have any others for me, so I continued west by myself. Perhaps I can acquire one in Portland if I head-out of the northwest that way, or possibly in Omaha on the return trip.