The second year I worked on the Milwaukee I left for college from the Wells yard. I had been up to school the weekend before to take up my stuff, so I just had to get my person up to campus that Friday. I had about 125 miles to go. I was wearing blue jeans, a work shirt, and hard hat. About noon I felt the urge to get going so I told my boss I was gone and just started down the road. I got a ride to the confluence of I90 and I35, then hitched a ride up I35 to Owatanna. I was dressed in dirty clothes, so maybe it's a testament to respect for the work ethic that people stopped for me. I35 climbs a steep grade to pass Owatanna. I waited there for about and hour until a yellow Beetle with Texas plates driven by a Vietnamese man stopped for me.

This guy was a refugee from South Vietnam and had an American sponser in Texas. He was going to Minneapolis to look for work. This guy had been in the South Vietnamese Navy and said Americans had been killed on his boat. When the country collapsed, he and some of his Navy buddies took a small sailing boat and sailed to some nearby country - I wish I could remember which one (Singapore?). Anyway, this country had to be careful not to anger Vietnam. Officials met this fellow and his friends at the dock. They told him that they were sorry but they couldn't assist the escapees in any way. Then they handed down food and water into the boat. They added sailing charts and a short wave radio, then told the refugees they had to leave. As they pulled away from the dock, one official yelled out that once they were safe they should send the radio back to the address on the case. I guess they planned to "not help" other escapees with it again.

My ride dropped me off two blocks from my dorm.