Contact Annette via bumpingthedock@gmail.com

Bumping the Dock: A Story of God’s Grace and an 18-Wheeler

Annette Wilcox

I am an unlikely person to be a long-haul trucker. People comment that I look more like a librarian or an English teacher than a trucker. And I have been both. Trucking is physically a little too hard for me. Perhaps for this reason, my life as a trucker has been one of radical dependence on God. The truck runs, after all, by grace, and I’m on the road only as long as God wants me to be. I have truly experienced that God’s mercies are new every morning and are inexhaustible. He always helps! That’s what this story is about.

Paperback: $16.95 | Kindle $9.99

INTERVIEWS

REVIEWS

She Drives Trucks Staff, “‘Bumping the Dock’: A woman driver’s perspective of OTR,” Trucker News. (October 20, 2020). Click here to read the review.

“Long Paul Haul” Marhoefer, “Faces of the Road: Annette Wilcox, a fresh perspective on life OTR,” Overdrive. (October 19, 2020). Click here to read the review. 

TESTIMONIALS

“Having read the book twice has given me a new perspective I would otherwise never have had. I would say that this book is a MUST READ for new folks looking to drive a truck who have no previous experience with trucks or drivers. It has given me insight into how a ‘newbie’ sees things and will arm me with the tools I need to be a better mentor and advisor. Thank you, thank you to Annette for writing this. The book is informative and takes you down the road with her in a way that is engaging and educational.” –Idella M. Hansen, 50-year trucker, 2017 Citizen Driver Honoree, Real Women in Trucking, Founding Board Member

Bumping the Dock will first surprise you — because it’s much more than a book about trucking — then delight you. Part travelogue, part diary, this book is also a revelation of Annette’s making the best out of a lousy hand. Readers are drawn smoothly and effortlessly into the world of learning to drive a ‘big rig’ by the author’s making them feel as if they’re sitting down with an old friend to catch up over a cup of coffee, only to find that in the end they really do admire her spunk and stamina and good judgment all the more.” — Dcn. Chris Sandner, assistant to Bishop Barron

“In Bumping the Dock, a Story of God’s Grace and an 18-Wheeler, Annette Wilcox details the many difficulties of learning to safely operate the largest vehicle on the highway while demonstrating her courage, tenacity and relentless faith. Her tale is one of overcoming challenges while refusing to bend her character or sacrifice her spirituality to succeed in a male-dominated industry that isn’t always welcoming to women or Christians. Best of all, she sets a lofty example by her reliance on her Savior for day-to-day accomplishments, regardless of her own considerable abilities.” – Cliff Abbott, 35-year industry veteran, Special Correspondent to The Trucker newspaper and author of Chronicles of an American Trucker: Which Way is the Road to Happiness?

Bumping the Dock is a fascinating, amusing, and deeply personal account of how this highly educated woman ended up behind the wheel of a semi. She brings her insights to the job of the over-the-road trucker, relating her experiences in a world that is all around us but about which most of us know too little. This book brings you along as she learns new skills, visits new places, overcomes challenges both personal and professional, and grows as a person. If you’ve always wondered what a trucker’s life was like, ride beside Annette Wilcox in Bumping the Dock. It’s a journey you’ll never forget.” — Roger Thomas, Author of, among others, The Last Ugly Person, The Accidental Marriage, and From Afar.

“Annette Wilcox gives Jack Kerouac a run for his money in this story of how God’s grace works in the cab of an 18-wheeler on American highways and byways.” – Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, author of the forthcoming The Narrative Spirituality of Dante’s Divine Comedy

Bumping the Dock, about a middle-aged woman becoming a semi-truck driver, is a rollicking book to read. Why would someone like me who took 4 driving tests before passing in a small car even enjoy such an account?  Because, as well as being a humorous story, it is also a Christian parable about courage in life-style shifts and an insightful look at relationships between women and men, in this case our heroine and a male truck-driving trainer.  With every chapter I felt more courage to think outside the box on my own personal decisions – that with God many impossible things could be possible!” — Dr. Ronda Chervin, contributor and co-author with Sebastian Mahfood of Catholic Realism: A Framework for the Refutation of Atheism and the Evangelization of Atheists

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Annette F. Wilcox, MA, is a mother of four and grandmother of five. She has been a translator, librarian, ESL instructor and has taught school in three countries, the last being as a lay missionary with the Holy Spirit Fathers in Moshi, Tanzania, East Africa. A family friend once remarked that he admired the way she kept “recycling” herself. The most recent recycle is twelve years in the trucking world where she has driven 1.1 million miles in a semi, hauling heavy loads of all sorts of things on the roads of all forty-eight contiguous United States and six of the provinces of Canada.

Annette may be reached for webinars and book store signings at bumpingthedock@gmail.com

OTHER CATHOLIC MEMOIRS

In Whom I Am Well Pleased by Edward T. Byrne

In Whom I Am Well Pleased by Edward T. Byrne

In Whom I Am Well Pleased by Edward T. Byrne Your child’s suicide feels like the biggest parental failure of all.  Any parent wants to be prepared for the worst, but no one ever anticipates the horror actually happening until it is too late.  In alternating chapters,...

read more
All is Grace! My Life by Fr. Julius D. Leloczky, O. Cist

All is Grace! My Life by Fr. Julius D. Leloczky, O. Cist

All is Grace! My Life by Fr. Julius D. Lelóczky, O.Cist. Son of a baker, Julius Lelóczky was supposed to continue the family business, the French style patisserie. He instead felt he was called to be a monk and priest, during a time when in communist Hungary all...

read more
Pain of Grace: Living and Suffering with Dignity

Pain of Grace: Living and Suffering with Dignity

Women of Grace with Johnette Benkovic (September 11 & 12, 2023) - When God Offers Us the Cross: Steps to Mining the Treasure, Part 1 and Part 2Pain of Grace: Living and Suffering with Dignity by Joni J. Seith Walking her readers through her conversion from a...

read more
An Unlikely Gardener: Prose and Poems

An Unlikely Gardener: Prose and Poems

An Unlikely Gardener: Prose and Poems by Francis Etheredge This book began as a failed article about gardening; however, having written one, several more followed and so it became a short book, wonderfully enriched by the criticisms of my eldest daughter and a...

read more
Non Nobis Domine: No para Nosotros, Señor

Non Nobis Domine: No para Nosotros, Señor

Non Nobis Domine: No Para Nosotros, Señor by Marge Giangiulio Un relato honesto y convincente de la vida de Marge Giangiulio y de las personas afectadas por una efusión de la bondad y la misericordia de Dios. En rústica: $14.95 | Kindle: $9.99 TESTIMONIOS "En el...

read more
God’s Memoir by Kristina Olsen

God’s Memoir by Kristina Olsen

God's Memoir by Kristina Olsen, OCDS, PhD God's Memoir invites you into the mind of God in an imaginative exploration of how God might think about Bible events and our lives today. We consider Creation, the birth of Jesus and the role of the family, as well as art,...

read more
How is God Involved in Evolution?

How is God Involved in Evolution?

How is God Involved in Evolution? by Joe P. Provenzano, Ron D. Morgan, and Dan R. Provenzano We have been searching for a satisfying answer to this question nearly all of our adult lives, and both Joe and Ron are almost 80. This journey of 50 years led us on an...

read more
My Catholic Conversion by Kristina R. Olsen

My Catholic Conversion by Kristina R. Olsen

My Catholic Conversion Kristina R. Olsen This is the conversion story of a Carmelite tertiary. Through a series of spiritual adventures and with the help of supportive friends, professors and spiritual guides, she learned about God's will for her to enter the Catholic...

read more
The Daughter of the King by Dorothy Cusick

The Daughter of the King by Dorothy Cusick

The Daughter of the King by Dorothy Cusick Counseled by a priest to put her children in an orphanage after being evicted from her home, Dorothy Cusick's mother, Mary, was in danger of falling into despair. Poetically written, Dorothy's story of how her mother faced...

read more
Non Nobis Domine: Not Unto Us, O Lord

Non Nobis Domine: Not Unto Us, O Lord

Non Nobis Domine: Not Unto Us, O Lord by Marge Giangiulio An honest and compelling account of the life of Marge Giangiulio and those touched by an outpouring of God’s goodness and mercy. Paperback: $14.95 | Kindle: $9.99 TESTIMONIALS "In today’s noisy, busy world, we...

read more
Will the Real Church Please Stand!

Will the Real Church Please Stand!

Will the Real Church Please Stand! A Conversion Journey from Fundamental Baptist to Roman Catholic By Anne Stokes Born into a devoutly Fundamentalist Baptist home, and baptized at the age of six, I was raised to believe that Baptists practiced the truest form of New...

read more
Seeing God’s Face: A Catholic American Woman in India

Seeing God’s Face: A Catholic American Woman in India

Seeing God's Face: A Catholic American Woman in India by Kiki Latimer My mother taught me at a young age the old adage that: life isn't fair. But we were living, growing up, in a country, the United States of America, that was founded on the idea of justice for all,...

read more
Adventures with the Holy Spirit: A Journey with RUACH

Adventures with the Holy Spirit: A Journey with RUACH

Whoever can make a recording of this hymn, please do so, and we'll share it with the world!Adventures with the Holy Spirit: A Journey with RUACH by Deacon Charles Louis Durban This book is dedicated to and is about the merciful and at times semi-miraculous...

read more
The Call to Prayer: Intimate Moments with God

The Call to Prayer: Intimate Moments with God

For more on Medjugorje, check out these other En Route books! Penny Abbruzzese's Medjugorje: My Lifelong Journey with Our Lady, Queen of Peace. Peter Breen's Prodigal Pilgrim. Barbara Lorenzo’s Miracle Mission at Medjugorje. The Call to Prayer: Intimate Moments with...

read more
A Gospel Path to Racial Healing

A Gospel Path to Racial Healing

A Gospel Path to Racial Healing   by Archbishop Emeritus Alfred Hughes and Deacon Larry Oney   Racial eruptions continue to highlight our need for deeper racial healing. This book begins with two contrasting stories of a black deacon and a white bishop. They...

read more
Miracle Mission to Medjugorje: A Journey of Faith

Miracle Mission to Medjugorje: A Journey of Faith

For more on Medjugorje, check out these other En Route books! Penny Abbruzzese's Medjugorje: My Lifelong Journey with Our Lady, Queen of Peace Peter Breen's Prodigal Pilgrim Forrest Yanke’s The Call to Prayer Miracle Mission to Medjugorje: A Journey of Faith by...

read more
Memoir of Grace (Children of the Cross) by Aqif Shahzad

Memoir of Grace (Children of the Cross) by Aqif Shahzad

Memoir of Grace (Children of the Cross) by Aqif Shahzad Memoir of Grace (Children of the Cross) helps us to see the wonders and miracles that God has provided through the works of Mary Kloska, a woman from the first world who has touched the hearts of those in the...

read more
Eugenio Zolli: Prophet for a New World

Eugenio Zolli: Prophet for a New World

"The life of Eugenio Zolli, chief rabbi of Rome during the Second World War, is in itself a prophesy for a new world. After years of research that led to the publication of the French edition, I am happy to present this book to an American public. From his studies in...

read more
Chosen One

Chosen One

Portion of the proceeds will support the Corpus Christi Hope House. Chosen One: From Homeless Infant to Priest at Home in My Heavenly Father's Heart by Fr. Bob Shaldone, SOLT This is a story of the life of Fr. Bob Shaldone, SOLT, whose earthly mother gave him up for...

read more
Stepping Up!

Stepping Up!

Stepping Up!: How Christ Turned My Pain & Suffering into Hope & Joy by Caitie Crowley WHERE IS GOD IN THE MIDST OF SUFFERING? Caitie Crowley was in a traumatic car accident on her way home from work and almost lost her life. She couldn't walk for 10 months....

read more
Ennobling Encounters

Ennobling Encounters

Congratulations to Dick Bishirjian for being a finalist in the American Best Book Awards (2022)!Ennobling Encounters by Dr. Richard Bishirjian In this memoir, Dick Bishirjian tells of how his life has been enriched by the many noble persons he has met over the course...

read more
Providential by Steve Mamanella

Providential by Steve Mamanella

What is God’s will for our lives? And how does our own free will intersect with God’s plan?   What is God’s will for our lives? And how does our own free will intersect with God’s plan? In Providential, an autobiographical exploration of the gift of God's Providence,...

read more
東尼的50,000個 巧合神蹟

東尼的50,000個 巧合神蹟

This is the TRADITIONAL VERSION. (点此进入):东尼的50,000个 巧合神迹 [Click Here for Simplified Chinese] 本頁面提供了這本書的詳盡內容介紹。 若您希望直接購買,請點選以下連結: #1. 點此訂購 (電子書)#2. 點此訂購 (平裝書)請使用有語言轉換功能的瀏覽器,自動將英文譯為中文瀏覽所有東尼的書+免費項目,點此進入Tony's 50,000 Co-Incidence Miracles (Traditional Chinese) 東尼的50,000個...

read more
东尼的50,000个 巧合神迹 – 安东尼.嘉锡雅(Anthony F. J. Coscia)著

东尼的50,000个 巧合神迹 – 安东尼.嘉锡雅(Anthony F. J. Coscia)著

(This is the SIMPLIFIED VERSION)  (點此進入):東尼的50,000個 巧合神蹟 [Click here for Traditional Chinese] 本页面提供了这本书的详尽内容介绍。 若您希望直接购买,请点选以下连结: #1. 点此订购 (电子书) #2. 点此订购 (平装书)请使用有语言转换功能的浏览器,自动将英文译为中文浏览所有东尼的书+免费项目,点此进入Tony's 50,000 Co-Incidence Miracles (Simplified Chinese) 东尼的50,000个...

read more
Dear Momma by Alex Gotay

Dear Momma by Alex Gotay

Dear Momma: “Views” from a Wayward Child, Convert, Ex-Jarhead, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt to a Son of Mary Alex Gotay How do Mary and Hip Hop connect?  Keep reading…Mary has many dense theological points that sometimes miss points of prayer for the average teen...

read more
Tony’s 50,000 Coincidence Miracles, Book 2

Tony’s 50,000 Coincidence Miracles, Book 2

Just Page Down for our book in English,  or Click on the links below for Translated Versions. And if you just want to order the book from Amazon or Barnes and Noble, you can page down to the bottom of this web page (to item number 10) to order your book. FREE ITEMS …...

read more
Holy Land Chronicle: A Journal of the ‘Fifth Gospel’

Holy Land Chronicle: A Journal of the ‘Fifth Gospel’

Holy Land Chronicle: A Journal of the ‘Fifth Gospel’ by Fr. Jeffrey “Skip” Thompson, MSA Fr. Jeffrey “Skip” Thompson, MSA, a Missionary of the Holy Apostles, has created an intellectually stimulating and visually delightful photo-documentary of his experiences in...

read more
The Story of Holy Apostles College and Seminary

The Story of Holy Apostles College and Seminary

The Story of Holy Apostles College and Seminary by Dr. Cynthia Toolin-Wilson and Prof. Robert Hubbard The Story of Holy Apostles College and Seminary is a yearbook of over sixty years of a Catholic seminary and college located in picturesque Cromwell, Connecticut. Dr....

read more
The Family on Pilgrimage: God Leads Through Dead Ends

The Family on Pilgrimage: God Leads Through Dead Ends

The Family on Pilgrimage: God Leads Through Dead Ends by Francis Etheredge Restless, bitter beyond hope, an unconscious pilgrim becomes conscious at forty that failing to find himself was the moment God awaited to give a sinner the gift of faith, transforming agonies...

read more
Becoming a Handmaid of the Lord

Becoming a Handmaid of the Lord

Becoming a Handmaid of the Lord From the journals of Ronda De Sola Chervin (written between 1977-1996), this autobiographical book explores a life of love and loss from a widow, mother, grandmother, professor of philosophy and theology, an international speaker and...

read more
The Fabric of Our Lives

The Fabric of Our Lives

The Fabric of Our Lives Assembled and Edited by Dr. Ronda Chervin Reading the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, Ronda was moved by the ‘everywoman’ quality of that montage of memoirs of Chinese-American women. Years later, while patching together a quilt for her bed and...

read more