This fall, the TV show “Ice Road Truckers” returned to The History Channel for a 12th season, after an eight-year hiatus – and Lisa Kelly returned to the screen, as well.

The show, which debuted in 2007, was billed as a “documentary series examining the lucrative but highly dangerous job of driving trucks on Canada's notorious ice highway.” But it had a more reality-TV feel.

Kelly was the first woman truck driver featured on the show. She appeared in a majority of the seasons — including the spinoff "IRT: Deadliest Roads," where the drivers traded the ice roads for dangerous highways in the Himalayas and Andes mountains. 

She was driving a truck for Carlile, the Alaska-based trucking company collaborating with the TV production company to film "Ice Road Truckers," when her boss suggested her for the show.

Since "Ice Road Truckers" went off the air in 2017, the now-44-year-old has been busy advancing her truck driving career. She's now a truck owner-operator and horse breeder. But she took a break to appear on the 12th season.

We talked to Kelly shortly after the new season began. Here are some highlights of that interview, edited for clarity and length. You can listen to or watch the full conversation on the HDT Talks Trucking podcast.

Lockridge:You've been doing the owner-operator thing. How's that been going?

Kelly: It's awesome. It's really nice that no one else can drive your truck. But the downfall is, if your truck breaks, you can't jump into another company truck. The money's good, but you have to budget, because you get lots more money, but you've got a lot more going out. 

As long as you're careful with that, it pays really good. 

As long as your truck doesn't break.

Q: Are you able to set aside money for potential repairs?

A: I did.... and then I bought a horse with it. So that was not my wisest decision. So I'm starting to build up again.

Q: I'm sure you've done a zillion interviews. What is one question that everybody asks you that you think to yourself, 'No, not that one again'?

A: Back in the day, it was, “What happened to the puppy?” [that she rescued during the first season of “IRT: Deadliest Roads.” It's not that I didn't like answering it. It's that I heard it so much that I just started making up stupid answers — and that's my social experiment where no one actually really listens.

So they're like, “What happened to that puppy in India?” And I'm like, “I ate him.” and they’re like, “That's nice.” They just hear what they want to hear.

Another one is, “What's it like to be a woman in a man's industry?” That's kind of what I've always done, so it’s really hard for me to answer because it's my reality. I'm just doing the job. You know, my feet still reach the pedals.

Q: Did you feel like the show over-dramatizes things, or do you feel like it was a good representation of what it's like being on the ice roads?

A: It's a bit of a tricky question, because everyone's like, “It's all scripted, blah, blah, blah.” But if it's scripted, no one has ever told me what to say!

Yes, it can be dramatized. But trucking is really boring — until it's really exciting. If they did not edit it down to the most exciting parts, no one wants to see that.

And there's a lot of playing up worst-case scenarios. So yes, those things could happen. And yes, they do happen. But it's pretty minimal.

Q: Did anything happen that really was scary or dramatic?

A: The other countries [in “IRT: Deadliest Roads”] were really scary. I didn't know the trucks. I didn’t know the language. The roads were just falling apart out from underneath. So they were legit scary.

On ice roads, things have happened here and there, but that is what I do for a living.

I have slid my truck backwards off a hill.

When you burn out on a hill, you get stopped, and you get out and throw chains. Well, I threw one chain, and I went under the truck and trailer to throw the other side. Right when I got to the other side, because the tires were warm, they melted a layer of ice and that truck slid backwards.

The truck's steering must have been turned a little, because it came over and almost slammed me into the guardrail. I had to jump the guardrail and roll down the hill, then just stand there and watch the truck go all the way to the bottom, with chains hanging over the top of the tire.

Q: What is it like driving the ice roads? What are things that people might not understand?

A: I don't think people understand how cold it is. [In comments they say things like] “If she doesn't have heat in her truck, if the truck's running, the truck's creating heat.” 

And I'm like, you don't understand how this works. If you don't have a blower motor to blow [the heat from the engine] into the cab, it's so cold that engine heat isn't going to be enough.

Q: You've been a female face in an industry that is heavily male. Do you think that's had an impact on people watching about what women can do and be successful at in trucking?

A: Yeah, I think so. There's definitely more women in it now than there was back in the day, and it's cool that people say I've been an inspiration for them.

And I'm not just an advocate for women, but anybody, that you can do what you set your mind to if you want to do it bad enough. You just can't make excuses. You got to go do it.

Q: How have you managed to maintain boundaries between that public persona and your personal life?

A: Because I am me, I'm not playing a character, when there's criticism, it's more personal. But I also realized that TV is a two-dimensional way to portray a three-dimensional person.

If there are six characters on a show, it's 45 minutes long, and you split it evenly, then you've got what? Maybe 10 minutes an episode that's actually being portrayed? You could show anybody having 10 minutes of a bad day, 10 minutes of a good day, 10 minutes of being tired.

It's not that you're not being who you are. They're not twisting it, but they can kind of shape your character.

Which is good, because I feel like my character has been like, the sweet girl that's tough. But I have my bad days where I'm not so sweet all the time, and days where I'm not so tough and I just want to go lie down.

And there are a lot of people [criticizing] that have no idea what they're talking about. They weren't there, and hindsight's 20/20. I did the best I could with the information I had at the time. And I just have to trust that I did my absolute best.

Q: What's something that you take with you on the road in the truck that might surprise people?

A: I don't think there's anything that's going to surprise anybody. It's like bathroom stuff, clothes, tools, food, phone. I'm kind of boring.

I do have a little pillow because I like to drive with it on my lower back. And this pillow has been all over the world with me in every truck that I've ever driven.

Q: Where do you want to go from here?

A: I hope they keep doing "Ice Road Truckers."

But I'm at the age now where I’m where I want to be in my career. I don't need more trucks. I don't need a fleet. I don't need employees.

I really like hooking to my tanker and going to Prudhoe and back to Fairbanks again. And I want to have this job till I don't work anymore.

And other than that, maybe get a piece of property that's a little bit bigger and breed some more horses.

Watch Deborah Lockridge's full conversation with Lisa Kelly on HDT Talks Trucking, including behind-the-scenes stories of filming the show, how she got into trucking, and more.