When Emil Treuthardt started full-time trucking in 1949, he never thought he would find himself driving into the next millennium. The 21-year-old Wisconsin man was just passing time until something else came along. The problem was that his boss treated him so nicely that he could not leave. After about seven years, driving was in his blood, and he could not think about doing anything else.
             Now he has 50 years of driving without a chargeable accident. "I won't retire." Says the 71-years-old resident of Monroe, Wisconsin. "I'm going to keep driving until I fail my physical."
             For much of his career, Treuthardt had one thing motivating him, his daughter, Kathy, who was born with cystic fibrosis, a disease of the lungs. She had to spend 90 days at a time in the hospital throughout her youth. During her first 18 years, she had no health coverage, because insurance companies do not cover preexisting conditions.
             Treuthardt had to pay the $300,000 in hospital bills out of his own pocket. "I had one hell of a bill for that girl," he says. "I could have bought a couple of farms for that." He drove 50 miles to Madison to see her every night she was in the hospital, according to his wife, Rozella. Now Emil's motivation for driving is different. Kathy died last summer at 44. The road has become his therapy. "I miss her," he says. "She was a sweet little girl. She'd always worry about her dad if my truck wasn't there Friday night or Saturday morning. The hardest part now is coming home Friday night and knowing she won't be there to look for the truck."
             Kathy wrote him a note shortly before her death, saying, "Dad, don't worry about me. I'll be your co-pilot when I'm gone." Treuthardt says that note helps keep him going. "I carry that with me. I've got a picture of her with me all the time. I ...