On a chilly morning last weekend, as motorcyclists flooded into Carlsbad from all corners of Southern California to honor a local boy's dream, ride organizer P.J. Byrne stepped into Josiah Trujillo's room with almost unbelievable news.
Months had passed since 13-year-old Trujillo, who suffers from spina bifida and is confined to his bed, asked Byrne if there was any way he could rally 3,000 Harleys to ride past his family's house in the suburbs.
Three thousand motorcycles ---- in Carlsbad. Crazy, right?
As Byrne recounted last week, he had laughed and reminded the boy he didn't live in Sturgis ---- the city in South Dakota that hosts the world's largest annual Harley-Davidson rally.
He promised 100 bikers and began spreading the word.
On Sunday morning, the conversation went a little bit differently.
"I said, ‘Josiah, I've got over 3,000 motorcycles waiting to come see you,'" Byrne remembered saying, as a chrome sea of Harleys idled at the staging area a few miles away. "And I could read his lips ---- all he could say was, ‘Wow!' I got that very clearly from reading his lips."
Minutes later, Trujillo's parents wheeled him out under a canopy on the driveway as Byrne and the first of an estimated 4,200 motorcyclists rumbled by, many of them waving and smiling at a boy they'd only read about, or heard 101.5 KGB radio host Clint August discussing on the air.
"It was the pinnacle of my life ---- in 61 years, and 47 on motorcycles, I've never been involved in anything like this," Byrne told me on Monday morning, still dumbfounded by the immense turnout for what started as a nice gesture for a local boy.
"I can't say, ‘See? I told you so,' because quite honestly, I was expecting 300 to 400 ---- I thought that would have been a lot," he added. "But this thing just went viral. We had people from Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, Imperial County.
"There was even a couple out here from Pennsylvania who heard about it somehow and extended their vacation by a week so they could ride past Josiah's house."
Byrne had also received notice last week from bikers in Australia and London, England, where groups were riding Sunday morning in Trujillo's honor.
That's three continents, if you're counting.
This is one of those rare stories whose scale and scope are difficult to convey in newsprint, but Byrne tried to put it in perspective: "I do know it took close to four hours before the last motorcycle passed his house."
He said there were reports of a five-mile logjam on Interstate 5 near the staging area off Tamarack Avenue, and a friend near the back said it took 45 minutes just to get off the freeway.
"I choke up every time I think about what happened," Byrne said. "To realize the outpouring of what people came to do, and why they did it ---- it was just phenomenal. We fed everybody and there was food left ---- that's how many donations came in."
Before the end, Josiah's mother, Elsie Trujillo, was handing out little thank-you pamphlets on Sunday with a photo of her son, smiling and waving while reclining on orange Harley-Davidson pillows under a Harley-Davidson comforter.
Across the top it was the title, "100 Bikes for Josiah," and across the bottom: "Thank you, bikers, for making my dream come true."
Three thousand indeed.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/columnists/pfingsten/pfingsten-bikes-for-josiah-turn-into-thousands-for-carlsbad-boy/article_1354a5d3-eef8-518b-a12e-e7ecd32f8ead.html
He said there were reports of a five-mile logjam on Interstate 5 near the staging area off Tamarack Avenue, and a friend near the back said it took 45 minutes just to get off the freeway.
"I choke up every time I think about what happened," Byrne said. "To realize the outpouring of what people came to do, and why they did it ---- it was just phenomenal. We fed everybody and there was food left ---- that's how many donations came in."
Before the end, Josiah's mother, Elsie Trujillo, was handing out little thank-you pamphlets on Sunday with a photo of her son, smiling and waving while reclining on orange Harley-Davidson pillows under a Harley-Davidson comforter.
Across the top it was the title, "100 Bikes for Josiah," and across the bottom: "Thank you, bikers, for making my dream come true."
Three thousand indeed.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/columnists/pfingsten/pfingsten-bikes-for-josiah-turn-into-thousands-for-carlsbad-boy/article_1354a5d3-eef8-518b-a12e-e7ecd32f8ead.html