Kazushi visiting the Crazy Horse Monument in South Dakota. Submitted photo
EMILY SCHMITT KNIGHTLIFE EDITOR
As May Term ended, one student decided he wanted to spend his summer as a vagabond.
Kazushi Mizumoto, of Japan, had a summer ahead of him with no money and no car, but a lot of ambition. He wanted to leave Waverly and explore America.
Mizumoto, a determined student, decided he would tour the country by hitchhiking.
On May 28, he departed on his journey. He did not tell anyone, not even his closest friends, he was leaving.
He wanted to visit his friend, who attends Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan. The friend helped him arrange transportation from Iowa to Kansas.
Mizumoto enjoyed his stay, but was anxious to begin hitchhiking.
After the visit, he walked along the highway, waiting for someone to offer him a ride. He had faith that there were plenty of considerate Midwestern people who would stop to help him.
“I met a strange person. His name was Omar. He invited me to his house and showed me Denver and Colorado State,” Mizumoto said.
He explored the Rocky Mountains with Omar for three or four days, which he said was an adventure he will not forget.
“He had a truck, but the gas was empty and it stopped,” he said. “So we pushed it to the gas station in the middle of the night.”
Omar was a friendly man full of interesting stories and secrets, he said. One day, Mizomoto came across the strong smell of marijuana in the truck. He realized Omar was smuggling marijuana into the mountains.
Mizumoto decided it was time to end his journey with Omar and continue to hitchhike. He stood alongside the highway once again, hopeful for a ride in any direction with anyone.
After several hours, he met a semi driver who drove him the six hours from Colorado to Wyoming.
In Wyoming, he tried to find a ride to Yellowstone National Park. He was disappointed he was unable to find a way to get to the park, a place he dreamed of visiting.
Mizumoto hitchhiked with several people through Wyoming and into South Dakota. His goal was to see a Native American reservation. Native Americans had always intrigued him when he studied U.S. history.
“I told my friend in Kansas that I wanted to meet Native American people. He said if I wanted to meet Native American people I should go to South Dakota to the reservations,” Mizumoto said. “So I decided I should go.”
In Rapid City, S.D., he met an old woman who knew of Wartburg because of its Lutheran affiliation. She took a liking to him and gave him a tour of the Black Hills and Badlands.
“I stayed at her house that night,” he said. “I said I wanted to go to [an] Indian reservation, but there was no time. So I gave up going because it was so far to the reservation.”
Mizumoto walked the highway again, not sure where he should go.
He walked several miles and no one stopped to offer him a ride. Then a police car pulled over.
Mizumoto’s travels will be continued in next week’s edition of The Trumpet.