Ilse Dietsche, 2014
People are saying there are lessons to be learned from these hard times. Lines of communication have been refreshed and some things are no longer taken for granted.
On the evening of April 2, I sent a short e -mail to Ilse Dietsche. I had not done this in a long time. I wrote about Ilse for this website in September 2014 when she decided to drive Route 66 alone.
Ilse was 86 years old in 2014.
Her determination and wonder became one of my all-time favorite travel stories.
I called her “The Grandma of the Mother Road.” I had Ilse and her daughter Christine on my [...]
Ilse in Albuquerque on her Route 66 road trip. (Used with permission.)
I wonder what my roadie friend Ilse would say about Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel’s piece in Atlantic magazine where he wrote that he only wanted to live 75 years.
Ilse is 86 years old and just finished her solo Route 66 trip from Chicago to a photo conference in Albuquerque, N.M. Ilse is too busy to mope around and think about dying young.
Dr. Emanuel wrote, “The fact is that by 75, creativity, originality and producitivity are pretty much gone for the vast, vast majority of us….People can continue to be [...]
