When Laura Brooks, of Princeton, West Virginia, isn’t driving over the road, you can find her at home in her craft room with her best friend. Together, the two women create and sell various crafts for the over 1,000 members of her Facebook group, “Laura’s Decorative Treasures.”
Right now Brooks is doing a lot of work with vinyl art. She uses a special cutter to trim vinyl for shirt designs, decorative wine bottles, and other personalized gifts and home decor. She may not be able to bring her craft room with her when she’s trucking, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t crafting in her down time.
“It’s hard to find something that you can do in a moving truck, because a lot of the crafts I do take a lot of supplies,” Brooks said. “I’ve learned to do some sewing, crocheting, knitting and things like that. I always have something with me on the truck to do in down time. I’ve even thought about bringing a sewing machine on the truck with me if I could get one small enough.”
Before trucking, Brooks had a successful career as an x-ray technician. When her husband told her he was getting his CDL, she couldn’t imagine staying home for weeks at a time without him. So she decided she’d get her CDL, too. They went to trucking school in March of 2015 and now they team drive for Cooke Trucking hauling furniture and produce, accompanied by their two dogs.
“We get along great on the truck. We have so much fun,” Brooks said. “We get to go and do and see things and just enjoy each other so much more than we ever got to before. We bring our two dogs along with us so it’s like family time every week.”
Brooks graduated first in her class at her trucking school, and says she’s proud to be a woman in trucking. She hasn’t received any negativity while over the road, she says.
“I’m proud to be out here as a woman. I’m proud to get out of the truck and say yep, I just stepped out of the driver’s seat. I enjoy seeing new things every day. I enjoy the freedom of it. It’s nothing like anything I’ve ever done before. It’s a new experience every day,” Brooks said.
Brooks was the only woman in her class at trucking school. She felt intimidated at first, but that didn’t stop her from doing her best.
“I was scared to death the first day I walked in. I thought there was no way I can drive this truck with all these men. I can’t compete against them,” she said. “I ended up graduating first. So I would just say don’t let anybody intimidate you. You can do it. Anybody can do it. If you want to, go for it, and just make sure you take the time to do it right.”