Dream - March 5, 2007

All I can remember is trying to cross a raging river that kept growing higher and higher. We were driving in an old pickup across a stream where there should not have been a raging river. Stranded in the middle, our only choice was to go back, get out of the truck and make our way to shore holding the last strand of barbed wire of the fence. Further along there was a railroad that crossed the river that was still well above the water. We climbed the step slope up to the railroad, but it required crossing the barbed wire onto some other private property that was not a good idea. We were in Mexico and did not really know where we were. A bandit with a revolver and bands of ammunition popped out from behind the railroad tracks and demanded our wallets, our passports, our identification. He was most interested in our passports because they brought a high price from the alien smugglers who were in the business of smuggling people across the border into the U.S.

So here we were, stranded somewhere in south central Mexico, hundreds of miles from the US border with no identification, no car, no cash, and only a handful of Spanish words in our vocabulary.

I don’t know what happened to my partner, whoever I was with, I don’t even know who it was. Eventually I was on my own. Broken Spanish phrases started to come back to me as I traveled, Necesito ir a norteamericano. Did that make sense? Probably not, but it was enough.

I got hooked up with a band of travelers who also wanted to cross the border, although their trek would be an “illegal” one. To them it was a risk worth taking.

At one point in our expedition, we rolled along railroad tracks by pushing ourselves in small coal cars along the railroad tracks. We “rowed” with long sticks and poled along down the railroad tracks.

Finally we rounded a bend and saw the great Rio Grande and across the water was the great state of Texas. As we looked at the water and noticed border patrol people on the far side, I realized that I could probably just start flailing about in the water and yelling, “ I am an American, I’ve lost my wallet, Help me, Help” and the border patrol would came and save me.

So this was the tactic I used and it worked. The border patrol man picked me up. I recited my social security number, address and drivers license number and he was convinced. He escorted me away from the border to the nearest town about 100 miles away.

I don’t know what happened to my traveling companions who tried to cross a different way.

- Dreamineer