Meet the Rider: Junie Rose # 383

Junie #383 is not only a participant but has been serving as the director of rider relations for the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge this past winter. She has ridden all of the routes and claims the bragging right of being the only female rider to have done that. Reading about the HHMC in a HOG magazine while being pumped full of poison in a cancer center in her home town was how she learned about this epic ride from Key West, Fl. to Homer, Ak. She always wanted to ride her motorcycle to Alaska and although she briefly entertained the idea of the $500,000. prize knew that was not why she was riding. When she asked her oncologist if she would be strong enough in three months to ride this 7000+ mile adventure he told her “Go live your life, don’t let this cancer slow you down,” and gave her $100 dollars. The town of Mattoon rallied around her having a benefit to raise her entry fee and flying by the seat of her pants with God at the wheel headed to Florida.

Hooked on Hoka Hey and not really sure this was where God wanted her to spend so much time she spent the next winter in prayer looking for confirmation this was where He wanted her. 5 years later she still feels very confident the plan He has laid out is where she is serving. Blanket drives, candy at Christmas, picnic tables are all things she has asked people to help to provide for the Pine Ridge Indian reservation and has never been disappointed with the outcome. “If God wants it to happen He will bless it.” Her church, Central Community has sent teams of people to assist with the efforts she felt led to try. 

Because of a crash in Marietta, Ga. on her way to the starting line in 2014 Junie was unable to make her second attempt to get to Alaska after not reaching there in 2010. She was given the opportunity to try for the third time in 2015 and was finally successful in reaching Homer, Alaska. She and Chuck Marble #85 had a friendly wager of a steak dinner at AJ's OldTown Steakhouse & Tavern for whoever arrived there first and He ended up buying. He also had not made it to his home state in 2010. 

Finding places to hide when sleeping is how she gets her rest. In 2015 she found an Army tank at a Veterans memorial in Kansas a good place to seek shelter but was saddened at the condition it was kept and contacted the town when she got home to see if there was something she could do to help make this better. “I wanted to cry and knew if a veteran saw this they probably would.” Behind an ice machine at a gas station just outside Telluride, Co was another of her hiding places. Sponsorships over the years have come from Hoggaiters, Woodstock Harley Davidson, and this year  Grannies Candy has helped her raise her gas money by providing yummy chocolate caramel turtles to sell to her friends.