Atlas Obscura Presents: A Trucker on Seeing the US by Road with Women Who Travel

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we’re bringing you an episode from our friends at the Women Who Travel podcast. Women make up just 7% of truckers in the United States—a number that shows no sign of increasing, even while the industry suffers from a huge shortage of workers. We hear from trucker Desiree Wood, whose job has taken her to 48 states, about the freedom of life on the road, the dangers that herself and women colleagues face, and the joys that come with the occasional return trip home. Listen to and follow Women Who Travel from Condé Nast Traveler wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everyone, we are taking a long holiday weekend. So we thought it would be fun to share an episode from our friends. We are sharing an episode from Condi Nast Travelers Women Who Travel. On Women Who Travel, each week, host and global journalist Lale Arakaglu shares her own travel experiences along with those of travelers from all over the globe.
0:22.9	In this episode, you will hear from trucker Desiree Wood about the dangers and freedoms of life on the road.
0:30.2	Just to note, there is a brief reference to sexual assault.
0:33.7	You can listen and follow women who travel wherever you get your podcasts.
0:42.6	Music You can listen and follow Women Who Travel wherever you get your podcast. Hi there, I'm Lalei Arakoglu, and today on Women Who Travel, we have a dispatch from a truck driver.
0:59.1	She talks about the freedom of the open road,
1:01.9	as well as the risk that she takes along the way.
1:07.7	Desiree has been delivering loads on long-haul routes since 2007.
1:10.6	Her roots have taken her to 48 states.
1:16.6	My name is Desiree Wood, and I am a long-haul truck driver.
1:24.6	What led me to this profession was as a child, we took a lot of road trips.
1:36.8	My mother was always taking us somewhere and she would not talk a lot.
1:42.9	So I started looking out the window and counting the mile posts.
1:49.1	It was like my time for daydreaming and thinking about all kinds of big ideas on those road trips.
1:59.7	I also kind of memorize the roads. I love maps, all the junctions
2:06.3	and all the legend on the map. And so I always had a love of the road. And when I moved out on my own,
2:11.7	I traveled across the country many times in a CJ7 Jeep, in a Hyundai Excel, with the dogs, with the kids, and just going on a
2:22.2	road trip, like, we're going somewhere. I loved it. So when kids were growing up, I was like,
2:29.0	what am I going to do now with them gone? You know, like, I don't have a reason to come home. And I was having a lot of
2:34.9	changes, the emptiness syndrome, the, you know, midlife, you know, depression, all of that. And
2:40.6	I actually did become homeless. And during that time, one of the things that was really bugging me
2:47.8	was where do I fit in the world? Where do I belong? What should I do with
	...

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