Born in England during World War II, author Diane Campbell Thompson, a war child, tells of bomb shelters, air raid sirens, meager food, and clothing rations. In Road to Ithaka, she narrates an honest account of her life beginning with her birth in 1941. Raised on the rugged north east coast, the beach and sand dunes become a happy playground. But as Thompson happily built sandcastles in the sand, her father built castles in the air. Home became shifting sand, and a series of moves eventually saw the teenager leave the family to live on more stable ground with her grandmother. Through selected journals and short stories, she shares the stories as she traveled across Spain on the famous Santiago de Compestella, trekked the meanest thirty-three miles in history, drove a dog team in the Yukon, spent afternoons with a grandchild, and watched forlornly as a parent descended into that abyss known as Alzheimer's. Sometimes introspective, sometimes humorous, always amusing, the stories and journals in this memoir reflect a free spirit in a world of endless possibilities.