World Travelers Visit

Last Summer I had met a Finnish couple at our campground in Wall South Dakota in July or so. They are on a multi year "around the world" adventure on a sidecar and motorcycle. The sidecar seats their dogs which are their constant companions. When we met is SD, they had three dogs, sadly one of the pooch's passed away a few weeks ago.  A link to their Blog:  http://www.sauerkraut-tofuwurst.com/
We had a short visit in South Dakota and I gave them my Yuma AZ. information in case they wanted to stop by for a visit when they got to the Southern US. A couple of months ago they contacted me and were planning on passing through our area so we invited them to spend a few days.

The sidecar rig is a special construction rig which "Wolfi" had built in Germany.  The sidecar door is a fold out ramp for the dogs easy entrance. Wolfi recently braved some of the rough back roads of Death Valley and had a catastrophic failure of one of the BMW OEM front suspension components. Luckily he was at low speed on a dirt road when the steering failed. He had to abandon the machine and return the following day to retrieve it. The story is covered in their Blog.

                       (Left "click" on images to enlarge)

 The below photo was taken in South Dakota last Summer, showing the dog ramp.

 The stacked aluminum container system straps down to a rear rack. Tons of storage between the two bikes. He also has a light duty electric winch mounted to the front of the sidecar frame.

 "Skippy" is riding a Suzuki on their adventure.

We decided to show our visitors the "Dunes" area West of Yuma, just inside California. 

 The little dogs had an absolute blast and ran and ran and ran....so much energy!

 It was a beautiful day with a little breeze which was slightly moving the sand around.

The couple now have headed over to Phoenix to continue preparation for their adventure into Mexico, Central America and South America. Wolfi estimates that they will spend at least a year traveling through South America. He suspects they'll need 6 weeks to be fully prepared to cross the Mexican border and continue Southward.

 The dogs are right at home in the sidecar.

 We thoroughly enjoyed the 3 day visit and hope they will come back and spend a few more days before they depart to the South. We don't have many Winter visitors.

On to Phoenix! Happy Trails!