A little about me Karen....and my husband (and team driver) Richie!!

My name is Karen and together with my husband, Richie, we are team company truck drivers.  We've just started our third year and we go all over the country, living on the truck for 12 weeks at a time with one week off.  I suppose you could call us Professional Nomads!

Here's my story and I'll tell you a bit how we came to choose this life on the truck.

My world started a million miles away from the trucking world - in Japan to be precise. I graduated from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts with a B.A. in Japanese language and culture.  Having graduated with no career prospects or direction, I found a job doing the only thing I knew how to do: type and be a secretary.

Utterly dissatisfied with this, I decided to try teaching English in Japan. I taught adults and children for almost 4 years. While there, I met Richie, who had come from England to teach.

After a couple of years dating in Japan, in 2005, we returned to the USA to get married. We then decided to settle in the UK to start our new life together.

Again, I fell back on my secretarial skills and worked as a secretary for about 6 and a half years for a very fancy law firm. One day we realized that with our salaries, we were never going to  be able to even afford a down payment on a cheap house as cost of living (rent, utilities, phone, food) was eating up well over half of our  meager pay each month.  We felt really stuck and disheartened over the lack of opportunities available to us.

One day in 2010, I thought that it might be a good idea to move to the USA as with my secretarial experience, I could get a much better paid job than if I remained in the UK. Richie had been a van delivery driver and he could either do that or train for something else.

Richie told me that he was thinking of being a truck driver. I told him no way, I'd never see him! Later that evening I felt bad and decided to do a bit of research on the internet. It was there that I accidentally discovered a concept called "Team Trucking". Hmmm, I thought, I hate driving a car and have never in my life thought about trucks, but why not? We had no kids, no home of our own, no money, what did we have to lose?

I remember skipping into work the next day in my pretty dress and stiletto boots and exclaiming "Guess what? Me and Richie are going to be American Team Truckers!" The responses I got were those  mildly patronizing smiles as if to say "Yes dear, of course you are".

Fast forward to January 2013. We're in America! We just passed our tests for CDL school and have departed on the Greyhound bus for orientation. Even then, the idea that I was actually a licensed truck driver wasn't really computing as it was still so surreal!

In the time between gearing up to leave the UK and boarding the Greyhound bus, I can't tell you how many hours I spent desperately combing the internet for some insight into the lifestyle we were getting ourselves into. I wanted team trucking anecdotes, ideas, stories, hints and tips but most of all, I wanted inspiration!  I wanted to hear from others who were already doing what we were about to do. I wanted to know that we wouldn't be alone. I guess you could say I wanted a kind of "Big Sister" so to speak to guide us and ease the culture shock of this completely alien and mysterious lifestyle of team trucking.

Did I find what I was looking for? No. Not at all.

As a result, my first year (after the novelty of the honeymoon period wore off) was hard for me. The culture shock of my new life was often painful. We suddenly had no society and no real idea how to do anything other than exist on the truck and get by. "This is no kind of life for a woman!" became my almost daily battle cry. I was convinced that I was all alone in my struggles. I was so grateful for Richie's support but I felt lonely and isolated from the rest of the world.

However little by little, we were able to carve out a life and lifestyle for ourselves on the truck. We slowly went from"existing" to "living". Not only that but our savings account reached figures previously unheard of for the likes of us! We went from merely wanting enough for a small house to wanting early retirement.

I want to be of benefit to those thinking about getting into team trucking. I want to let other teams already on the truck know that they're not alone. I want to welcome everyone, and especially women, into our little world.  Basically I just want to share aspects of our life, from food to exercise to naps. Whatever takes my fancy, really, and gives a bit of insight into how this particular team lives. I want to tell women that you can be a trucker and still be girly!

I'm no authority on anything so whatever I talk about will merely be saying"Hey, this is what we're doing and feel free to use any ideas that you like (or not)!" I am not saying "This is what you should be doing!" Our lifestyle is always a work in progress and we're constantly seeking to make our lives on the truck better and better.

So again, welcome to our world!