Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/714189
36 nSeptember 2016n www.thunderpress.net THUNDER PRESS by Jon DeMaria ROSARITO BEACH, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO, JULY 15–17—Thousands of motorcycles assemble in Anaheim, California, at Lifestyles Motorcycles to embark on a journey to Mexico as part of the 12th annual Rosarito Beach Motorcycle run. The hundred plus mile ride makes one fi nal stop at Sweetwater Harley- Davidson in Chula Vista where they are joined by hundreds of others before they continue a few more miles to the Mexican border. There they are met by Municipal Federal Police who not only provide an escort and safe passage to Rosarito, but make themselves available for any needs which may arise includ- ing helping those who bikes may break down along the route. This is my third year attending the run. That fi rst year I booked a hotel room for Friday and Saturday and was pleasantly surprised at what a good time I had but, more importantly, how impressive it was to see the outpouring of generosity by the Rolling Deep 4 Charities crew. If you've never heard of Rolling Deep 4 Charities, they are a group of about 65 people who hold events throughout the year to raise money to buy gifts, backpacks, school supplies, and much more for the less fortunate children of Rosarito Beach. This year's event seemed to creep up on me and before I knew it the big weekend was here. I'd neglected to make arrangements to attend. My efforts to secure a room were to no avail, and it turned out that every hotel room in Rosarito Beach was booked. In fact, Rolling Deep 4 Charities lead man and founder, Martin Resendez, appro- priately nicknamed Hefe, later informed me that this year's event had grown so large that people were forced to resort to staying outside of town and some even had to settle for rooms as far away as Tijuana, a town approximately 30 minutes north of Rosarito Beach. He went on to provide some back- ground on the run's rise in popularity. "In the beginning, we would always go to Rosarito, just to go hang out for the weekend," said Resendez. "We'd go to a place owned by Papas & Beer called Rock 'n Roll Taco. We got along with the management and asked them how they felt if we would bring more bikes down and bring stuff down for the kids the following year. I think the fi rst event we had a little under 100 bikes. And then the mayor's wife became involved the second year. She handles all of the charity organizations down there so the second year was even bigger. The third year is when it got out of control. They said it had never happened before except once when the actual president of Mexico was visit- ing Rosarito, there are so many bikes in attendance we shut down the whole Main Boulevard. There was only room for one lane on either side going up and down because there were so many motorcycles. After that year we realized we needed a larger venue so we moved the event to Papas & Beer the following year. We always try to change things up and for next year we're attempting to obtain permits to close the streets around Papas & Beer to create a larger festival type event with more park- ing. We're also looking into creating all-in-one packages, essentially a one stop shop which will be all inclusive providing everything, your hotel, your lunch, ride patch, VIP wristband, and everything else that's normally included with the events admission all for one low package price." After having blown any chance of arranging accommodations of my own this year, I decided to forgo the Friday night festivities and cruise down on Saturday to at least catch the gift dis- tribution aspect of the event. When I had arrived at Papas & Beer the place was deserted. I fi gured I had missed the ride entirely, but soon realized I'd just shown up too early as scores of other bikes began rolling in, ultimately numbering over 1000. We all proceeded from there to this year's new distribu- tion location, a park called Primo Tapia located adjacent to a school full of chil- dren. It was a perfect venue. Angel and Veronica Duarte backed the truck and trailer packed with toys into the staging area and the team began unloading the dozens of boxes of toys each marked by age and gender. It was all orchestrated smoothly, directed by Melissa Victoria, who formed bucket lines of volunteers passing the toys to their respective tables. All this went on while hundreds of excited and eager children gathered in a holding area awaiting their chance to scoop up their choice of toys. And when the time came to let them in, and you saw the looks of joy on their faces while receiving their toys, the feeling was simply amazing. After the last child received their fi nal toy it was time to saddle up for the journey back to Papas & Beer to celebrate another successful year. When See "Rosarito," page 38, column 1 12TH ANNUAL ROSARITO BEACH MOTORCYCLE RUN Literally, Christmas in July Passing out toys—and then just passing out We gave out an additional 500 toys to the local kids outside of Papas & Beer Bikes arriving to Papas & Beer for a cold beer and tacos RD4C gave out 100 bikes to the kids of Rosarito Beach. From left to right front row: David, Ram, Joey, Kathy, Sonia, Robert, Frank, Milo