A true World Cup journey: One man’s drive from San Francisco to Brazil

SI ^ | May 30, 2014 | Grant Wahl

[C19fan]

If you go on Google Maps and ask for driving directions from San Francisco to Salvador, Brazil, you get a discouraging response: “Sorry, we could not calculate directions from “San Francisco, CA” to “Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.”

But that didn’t stop Ben Oude Kamphuis, a hardcore Dutch soccer fan and Hulk Hogan look-alike, from hopping into his orange 1955 Chevy truck, Old Nellie, and going on the road trip of a lifetime to the World Cup.

“The whole experience has been mind-blowing,” Oude Kamphuis, 52, told me via Skype recently from a pit stop in Urcos, Peru. “It all started four years ago when the Dutch lost in the [World Cup] final to Spain. That was the third time I cried, the third time we lost in the final. I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m driving Old Nellie down to Brazil. It looks like the Dutch can’t get it together, so I might as well go myself.’”

On January 15, Oude Kamphuis took time off from his job working with disabled children and adults in a San Francisco city gardening program and turned the key on Old Nellie. He hasn’t stopped driving since, making his way down Baja California, taking a Mexican ferry from La Paz to Mazatlán, wending through Mexico and Central America, sending his car on a boat from Colón, Panama to Cartagena, Colombia (since there are no roads in Panama’s Darién National Park), and then navigating the Andes through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

[C19fan]

I would luv to road trip like that. I am glad the guy made it safe to Brazil.

[DoodleDawg]

If you go on Google Maps and ask for driving directions from San Francisco to Salvador, Brazil, you get a discouraging response: “Sorry, we could not calculate directions from “San Francisco, CA” to “Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.”

He needed directions of some sort. Becuase if he's currently in Peru then that's clear on the other side of the continent from where the games are, and there are a few minor things like the Andes Mountains and the Amazon rainforest between him and the soccer venues.

[AU72]

Hope he brought a tent and a sleeping bag. Only 1/3 of the facilities for the WC have been completed.

[JRios1968]

He needed directions of some sort. Becuase if he's currently in Peru then that's clear on the other side of the continent from where the games are, and there are a few minor things like the Andes Mountains and the Amazon rainforest between him and the soccer venues

Well, it became clear he's not exactly very road-wise when he somehow ended in Baja California...

[Rio]

He had a better plan than this guy:

Man trying to dribble soccer ball to World Cup in Brazil dies after being hit by truck in Oregon
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3019746/posts

[Red Badger]

The cost of gasoline alone must be a fortune........................

[autumnraine]

I think the 1/3 is what’s been completed on the Olympics.

[Red Badger]

He’s taking the Scenic Route.......................

[BeadCounter]

soccer ping

[RayChuang88]

I remember way back in 1994 a soccer fan from Brazil actually shipped over a Brazilian-made Volkswagen Transporter van to follow around the Brazilian soccer team. That must have cost a fortune to do that.

[Scoutmaster]

Thanks.