The last day of the Anchor House ride is always special. It's a short ride 55 miles to the Picnic at the Dutkos' house in Hopewell through familiar roads in Montgomery, Bucks, Hunterdon and Mercer County. We road out with the young generation leading the way. It was amazing to see the confidence they have gained during the week. They are now seasoned veterans! A highlight for me was coffee at SAG 1- I hadn't had my morning coffee and there was SAG volunteer Bodo with Boxes of Joe from Dunkin Donuts. Made my and my riding buddy Eric's morning!!
Flash forward to the picnic, where our annual host family the Dutkos put out a fabulous spread of food and ice cream (!) and as always we get to enjoy their pool. Of course we swam in our biking shorts!
One of my favorite people on the ride is the guy I started riding the Anchor House with seven years ago, my good friend and long time Anchor House room mate, Jack Hayon. Jack's smiling face is a constant positive presence during the ride.
What made this ride so special all week was of course having our sons on the ride for their first year. Jack and I were beaming and fist bumping all week as we watched our sons cycle their first 500 mile ride and experience all the things that we love about the Anchor House ride. Our favorite Anchor House of all with no question!
From the picnic to our finish at the Quakerbridge Mall, we ride two abreast with a police escort for ten miles, with people cheering us on along the parade route. At the mall we were greeted by our family and friends. Shown below are two children I have known since they were babies, Stephanie (on the left) and Joseph (in the middle), the children of good friend Ken Naglak who celebrated his tenth year on the ride.
As per Anchor House tradition, the cyclists ride into the mall and are greeted by the cheering crowd as their names are announced. At the mall, we learned that we raised $517,000 (so far) for the kids of Anchor House. This is the single biggest source of funds for the organization and enables the House to do so much for children who are in need of a helping hand at a critical time in their lives.
Of course, this Anchor House meant so much for me because Adam was on the ride. A dream come true to spend this week with my son, and to share with him my love of cycling and the spirit of using your abilities to raise money to help others. I love you Adam and I am so proud of you- you are an awesome cyclist and of course a terrific son! Thanks everyone for following along. Stay tuned in two weeks for blogs from my third Pan Mass Challenge ride.
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Congrats Adam and Kenny!!!! You met your challenges, raised a lot of money for a great cause, and had a blast in the process! So good to see the pictures and read the vignettes to get a sense of the trek. We are proud of you both! What a heartwarming father/son journey!
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R&B