Ben Oude Kamphuis, a Dutch soccer fan, drove his 1955 Chevrolet 235 pickup truck nearly 13,000 miles from San Francisco to Brazil just to watch his Netherlands team play in the World Cup, reports NBC Los Angeles.
The drive took him the better part of five months and took him through 12 countries.
“Four years ago when we, Holland, lost again in the final I was crying one more time,” Oude Kamphuis told NBC. “That’s three times that I cried in the final. So I was telling my family and friends back in San Francisco, you know what, I’m driving old ‘Nellie’ to Brazil.”
‘Nellie’ is what Oude Kamphuis calls his red ’55 Chevy. Man and truck reportedly developed a “special relationship.”
“Every morning it started. I went through the highest mountains, through the deserts, through the Amazon, the rainforest. She has never let me down,” he told NBC.
The Netherlands’ first World Cup match is Friday against Spain. Should the Netherlands lose, Oude Kamphuis can look forward to the longest ride of his life on his way back home.
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