Tom's Birthday
Party a Success!

It all began at 9:15 on Saturday, September 27th  with Tom and Pete Harris starting out on their usual "Tour de Manure" training ride. Tom and wife Jeanne had just returned from a wonderful vacation in Maine and Tom spent most of the first hour relating just how great the vacation had been.   At the top of "Goat Hill" they were joined by Tom Ryan, who then went off to add some miles to his own ride.   As Tom and Pete continued to Rock Road they were joined by Sean Bolden, Tom still didn't have a clue anything unusual was happening.   By Rileyville Road they were rejoined by Tom Ryan and the small group continued on.  On Mountain Church Road Tom was surprised to see Phil and Joyce Goldberg and they casually joined the growing group (Tom was still clueless).  Just a little further down Mountain Church Tom was surprised to see Jay Skidmore resting on a rock at the side of the road and Jay joined the group.  Tom was finally starting to wonder what was going on.   As the group proceeded down Stony Brook Road they met up with Russ Buckley who was attempting to fix a broken cleat, Russ joined the cyclists.  Turning onto Hopewell Pennington Road Tom was greeted by two friends from his work; Nick and Jessica.  The group turned onto Tyburn Road and much to Tom's surprise there was Ron Bird with his son John (from Maryland) and John Hinton, Lee Klink and Jerry DePew - Tom finally realized he had been had.   The now sizeable group continued on the route to Kunkel Park, as they made the last turn Tom looked at Pete and said "You're a WEASEL!" 

Arriving at the park Tom was greeted by long time riding partner Johnnie Britt, and the two main organizers of the picnic; Tom's wife Jeanne, and good family friend Bonnie Holcombe. Jeanne and Bonnie had done a beautiful job of setting up the park pavilion to look like a "SAG Stop", complete with Gatorade.   Good food was available for all!  There were gag gifts, a t-shirt for all of the guests to sign which said on the front, "I'm not 50 I'm $49.95!", a memory book and a display of photos of Tom from childhood to present including one rather dubious picture of Tom in his younger days in a colorful polyester suit (sans beard) in which he looked much like a loosing contestant on "The Dating Game".

Many more of Tom's friends and fellow Anchor House riders joined him at the park for the picnic including: his son "TJ", Julia "One Beer Betsy" Obetz, Krystal Knapp, Tom Csapo, Micki Quinn Zikos, Charlie Skitsko and girlfriend Linda, Leroy Harms, Pete's wife Karen and their children Seth and Rachel, Sean Bolden's wife and son and others who continued to arrive during the afternoon. 

This was a 50th Birthday celebrated in true Anchor House fashion!