Welcome to the boards!
I'm near you as well.
50 pounds is very reasonable for one year
As for buddies, I had a small group of buddies a while back, but everyone ended up chatting about their day and the weight loss sorta took a backseat lol A friend of mine was my weight loss buddy for a while, but that was a bust...I'd show up to work out and if she didn't feel like it (or if I didn't feel like it), we gladly skipped the workouts and sat on the couch to watch tv instead (silly enablers that we were)

So my buddy experience hasn't worked very as far as actual weight loss goes lol But I met some really nice people in the process.
If anyone ever wants to drop me a line, please do! I don't sit on the couch anymore tho

But I will gladly offer support and occasional kicks in the butt