An opportunity to go into trucking saved Mary Spellman of Lebanon, Ind., from going on welfare and provided a new career that totally captured her heart. "It's my job. I love it. I would not be doing anything else," says Spellman, 48.

Although more women than ever are driving trucks today, either solo or as part of a team, women truckers were rather uncommon in 1991 when Mary began her career. At the time, she needed to support her husband, who was on disability, and three children.

She sought help from the Indiana Department of Employment and Training. They asked her if she'd like to go to school and study for a new career. Of all her options, trucking appealed to her the most.

After training, she signed on with Schneider National which offered her incentives to stay a year or more. She accepted the job, but quickly encountered male skeptics. "Everyone was used to seeing a man behind the wheel and when they saw me, they'd say, ‘You drive that big thing all by yourself?' " she recalled.

At the beginning of her second year, she broke her wrist and had to leave trucking for a while. As time passed, she found she missed the road. She got a job lead at a small fleet in Indianapolis, Acme Distributors, where she began driving again. Currently, she drives a tanker and hauls flour and cornmeal. "I've always wanted to travel. I was raised in an Air Force family, and travel got in my blood," she says. "But I knew when I grew up that I wouldn't be able to afford to go to all the places I wanted to.

"I've seen all the lower 48 states. I've seen beautiful rainbows and sunsets out West; and Connecticut and Maine are breathtaking in fall; and I've been able to see the Mojave Desert in bloom. I guess I'd never dreamed I'd be a trucker because I didn't even get my driver's license until I was 31. I didn't learn to drive a stick shift until 1990."

She advises women thinking about a trucking career: "Check it out before you make a decision. There are physical characteristics needed. And you have to have a sense of humor and be able to take off-color jokes as well as the clean ones...I'm never bored for company. I'm always 'high' about my job."