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 [...]
Route 66, New Mexico, 1991 (Photo by Dave Hoekstra)
The gentle tones of the dispatch were from another time, one of car hops and flat tops.
Ilse e-mailed me about a week ago after reading Route 66 stories on my website. On Sunday, Sept. 21 she embarked on an eight day trip down Route 66 from Chicago to the 76th conference of the Photographic Society of America in Albuquerque, N.M. Ilse is driving her “Isabella,” a camel-colored Hyundai that she named after the Queen of Spain. She will listen to classic country music on satellite radio and German folk songs. She likes Johnny [...]
