When I first decided to drive truck with my new husband in 1990, my mother-in-law gasped, “How can you think of this?” Then she and her sisters looked into the cab and sleeper and they all giggled, “You can’t go to bed mad in there, can you?” And finally, they asked where we would be next week and I said, “Beats the tea out of me,” and they exclaimed, “Oh, how can you stand not knowing?” I replied, “How can you stand knowing what’s going to happen and always being in the same place all the time?” That has become sort of our mantra out here. We look at each other and both say, “Where to next?” The reason I am writing is my remembrance of my first years in trucking. My daughter was just married and still living in Wisconsin. I would call her from Texas in March and whine I was suffering … from sunburn and she would just howl with laughter and tell me to just shut up already. The best line she ever gave me that sums up how trucking affects family is when she said, “When they say on TV, ‘It is is 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?’ I have to paraphrase with, ‘It is 10 p.m. Do I know where MY mother is?'” She has told me many times that she is inspired by my courage and willingness to try new things and succeed. That is why she loves me, her trucker Mom.
