HOG - Harley-News

Saddlesore 1000
1,000 miles…
An idea born
in 2008 and
a momentous
four-word
e-mail in 2009
– any Iron Butt
plans? – the rest
is history, as
Marianne Maurer
recalls…
PHOTOS.COM
It was July 21, 3.12am. The great
moment had arrived. Timo and I, wearing
our wet weather gear, were at a Helsinki
petrol station. The two young employees
were witnesses and signed our forms as
required by the IBA. My mileage indicator
said 81,179km and it wasn’t raining – yet.
We planned to make 10 petrol stops: the
receipts would be proof of our journey and
would also serve as a basis for calculating
our speed, as one of the criteria is to
respect the rules of the road and especially
the speed limit. The first stage took us to
Tampere and on to Kuopio.
After Kuopio, a town almost completely
surrounded by big Lake Kallavesi in
central-east Finland, we took Route 75
towards the Karelia region. At Nurmes,
the town at the northern end of Lake
Pielinen, less than 70km from the Russian
frontier and Timo’s birthplace, one of his
friends was waiting for us and we took
a slightly longer break. We had 622km
behind us but the rain arrived and stayed
with us for the next 600km. We rode
through Suomussalmi and Kuusamo and
took a break in Sodankylä. We were in
the middle of Lapland, the land of the
Samis, and had covered more than
1,200km. The rain had stopped and I
enjoyed this amazing scenery.
We rode through another belt of rain –
the mixture of rain and midsummer night
sun brought a wonderful rainbow. As well
as this, there was another surprise in
store: reindeer on the road!
At Kilpisjärvi we entered Norway and
continued for a while. Suddenly Timo
stopped. He congratulated me: “You made
it – 1,000 miles!” It was 9.50pm.
We still had to ride for two hours
through magnificent scenery, with its
quiet natural rivers and snow-covered
mountains on the horizon. We approached
Tromsø where the first petrol station was
our goal.
At the petrol station the two employees
Renate and Alexander completed the last
boxes on our forms: ‘local time 23h50,
odometer 82,952km’. According to my
mileage indicator, I’d done 1,773km.
The following day we began the return
journey, but not before visiting the town
and making a few purchases at the Tromsø
Harley-Davidson dealership – the world’s
northernmost dealership.
I want to end this article firstly by
sincerely thanking Timo and his family
for giving me such a wonderful experience,
and secondly, I’d like my story to encourage
all present and future female bikers to go
on trips. Go for it, ladies! The reward is
great. Happy biking and perhaps we’ll see
each other on the road! ■
Marianne Maurer is a Life Member of
H.O.G. and lives in Belgium. She has had
her motorcycle driving licence since she
was 18 and for 20 years she didn’t ride
one. “Living alone with my daughter in
Belgium and being responsible for her,
biking was not a priority. But the day my
daughter became more independent, my
lifelong dream came true in 2003 when I
bought my very first bike: a white Harley-
Davidson Sportster 883 ‘Huggar’, the
centenary edition, which I still own!”
By participating in the rides organised
by the H.O.G. Chapter and the traditional
Benelux Ladies of Harley trips, including
the European Bike Week in Faak, Marianne
accumulated 17,000km on her Sportster.
In March 2005, she bought a new white
Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic
on which she’s ridden more than
87,000km. “In 2010 perhaps I’ll change
the Softail for a Road King.”
HOG ® summer 2010 49