I hitch-hiked to Dartmouth from the West Coast
The freshman’s journey from San Fran to Hanover lasted 29 days…
Move in day is an exciting an nerve-wracking time for many freshmen as they start their new adventure at Dartmouth. Personally, I know I was restless for several weeks leading up to the day I left for Hanover for the first time.
While many ’19s were busy preparing for their new adventure at Dartmouth, one freshmen decided he would begin his journey a month early.
The Tab recently caught up with Sam Albertsen. This fascinating Dartmouth 19 hitchhiked 3400 miles in 29 days from the outskirts of San Fransisco, all the way across the US to Hanover.
The obvious first question: Why?
Sam explained he was surfing with a buddy in San Fran, after watching a documentary on hitchhiking across America, and the movie ‘Across the wild’, talking about how great it would be just to up and go.
After realizing that neither of them had any plans for summer- no work, no school, just waiting for college- Sam made the conscious decision to go. He took a significant amount of time to plan out the trip, during which Sam kept the entire trip secret from his Mom.
Wait, your mom didn’t know?
“Yeah, so my mom calls me like, I haven’t heard from you in a week, where are you? And I’m like, oh, I’m in Kansas right now’
Were there any guidelines you set?
“Yeah, my main ones were: never sleep in a hotel or motel, and only sleep outside (on sidewalks, in car parks, alleys, and bushes)”
What stuff did you take with you?
“A regular backpack, a sleeping bag, sleeping mat, tarp, cooking supplies and a pair of clothes”
Hearing about the journey from Sam proved to be even more astounding than we imagined. The fact that a freshmen encountered so many people and places on a solo trip across the US, prior to college is truly amazing.
Sam noted: “I met a lot of characters, [you know] they’re gonna’ be interesting if they’re willing to help a hitchhiker.”
We picked out some choice moments from his extraordinary journey…
Day One: Setting out on the journey
The first person to help Sam out was an old man about 70 years old, only a few miles from his house. This guy was fat, had a long beard, and used to work on an aircraft carrier. Sam thought at first that this was a relaxing start to the journey, until he realized that the man liked to talk about sex. A LOT!
“This guy would see any woman on the street, and be like- oh, there’s some nice pussy- he referred to every woman as pussy, and I had to keep from bursting out laughing [at the ridiculousness of his comments]” The journey only lasted around 20 minutes, so fortunately the sex talk was short-lived.
Chicago proved to be a low point in the trip. Sam went as far to call it the dark side of his journey:
“The homeless scene is Chicago is bad, the people aren’t friendly towards the homeless, there’s a big issue that they’re trying to cover up. Obviously you start to look homeless after not shaving and travelling, so people just assumed I was homeless.”
“Finding a place to sleep was tough- normally I’d sleep in a park, but the police cracked down on it. Then a huge rainstorm was forecast, with flash flood warnings, and the only place to go was underground. So I got talking to this homeless lady, and shared some of my food with her, she said if you don’t do heroin or crack, and wanna keep your stuff, don’t go underground. So in the end I lucked out, and slept in a storage shed in an alley by sneaking through the wire fence.”
“The best motivation for it was getting out of my comfort zone, we as Americans spend so long in our comfort zone, it promotes complacency, and if you don’t push yourself, you don’t lose anything, but you don’t gain anything either.”
The story really hits home because of the people Sam met. For example, one truck driver from Nevada revealed his story to Sam.
“He ran away age 12, lived on the streets until 18, graduated high school, up and left for Mexico with his girlfriend and lived on a beach fishing- eating the fish and selling what he didn’t need to market, moved back to la, became a pro mountain biker, moved to Montana, opened the second larger chinchilla farm in the world, and now runs a truck business. I stayed with him in his truck for two and a half days.”
Sam said the best point of the journey was getting into New England, and prior to that getting to New York. He said seeing the water of the east coast for the first time was amazing and he then realized that he’d actually done it.
“It was a real milestone.”
He stayed with Andrew Heo, a fellow 19’, in NYC. He described the stopover as “a real bonus” as he had a place to stay, got to go out to nightclubs and had food other than peanut butter to eat.
Andrew and Sam: NYC milestone
Remarkably, the enormity of this journey is not the most astonishing thing about Sam’s trip. What’s really jaw dropping is the fact that it was only his second time leaving California in his life when he began the journey.
“Yeah it was the second time I’d left California, the first time I left was coming to Dartmouth for dimensions.”
Oh, and in case that wasn’t enough, some NYC kids are making a movie about the whole ordeal. Sam is going to have his own feature film, which he is remarkably modest about.
This kid is something else.
Day 29: Arriving at Dartmouth
“Going with the flow is such a huge part of life, and being adaptable and versatile adds so much to your character’.
Here’s to you Sam. The most versatile and open minded person we’ve met for sure.
We hope your time at Dartmouth is as exciting an adventure as the epic journey leading up to it.