Wednesday 25 May 2022 06:34 PM Brazilian influencer's dream drive in 1978 Beetle to Alaska cut short in deadly ... trends now
A 29-year-old influencer who was living his dream of traveling from his home country of Brazil, through the Americas to reach Alaska, has died just two days from his destination.
Jesse Koz has traveled 52,000 miles and 17 countries in his 1978 Volkswagen Beetle with his pet Golden Retriever Shurastey since he began his trip in 2017.
But on Monday, Koz and his pet were killed in a head-on crash with a Ford Escape on US Highway 199 near Selma, Oregon. Koz and his dog were pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the Ford Escape, Eileen Huss, 62, was taken to a hospital for treatment to her injuries. A two-year-old child who was in her vehicle was uninjured.
Brazilian influencer Jesse Koz and his Golden Retriever Shurastey had been joined at the hip for six years before they were both killed in a crash this week
Brazilian influencer Jesse Koz and his pet Golden Retriever Shurastey were killed Monday in Oregon when he collided with a vehicle head-on. Koz was just two days away from reaching his dream destination of Alaska, a trip that had been cut short in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic
Jesse Koz, a 29-year-old influencer from Brazil, and his pet dog had visited 17 countries since 2017
On Saturday, Koz shared a photo of his camp site in Oregon as he and his pet Golden Retriever were getting ready to get back on the road and drive to Alaska
Jesse Koz returned to Queretaro, Mexico, to pick up his 1978 Volkswagen Beetle in January and restart his journey to Alaska
Koz has been on the road since 2017, but his trip to Alaska was slowed down in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, which prohibited him from driving across the Mexico-United States border and forced him to return to Brazil.
He launched named the journey 'Shurastey or Shuaigow', a playful combination of his dog's name, with The Clash's smash hit song, Should I Stay or Should I Go.
He resumed his much-awaited journey in January, getting back to Mexico where he reunited with Volkswagen Beetle, which he playfully named 'Dodongo.'
'We left Mexico in September 2020 with the idea of staying only four months in Brazil with the hope that the Mexico-US border would open again,' Koz explained. 'But the months went by, and no news that this would happen, month after month after month (of) expectation was decreasing and the dream of completing the drive with the Beetle was (slipping away).'
Koz crossed from the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León to Texas on February 9 and later visited the NASA Space Center in Houston before heading for Louisiana.
