Father's Day in the White Mountains

Unlike Mother's Day for Father's Day 2016 the weather was gorgeous and were able to go to Glen Ellis Falls and a whole lot more driving about 330 miles from home, through the White Mountains, and back home again.

Our trip started with one of our favorite drive which is from home, through Winthrop to Bethel and into Gorham, New Hampshire.  There is just something about that drive that we truly love.  Once in Gorham we hit Route 16 south towards Jackson stopping at Glen Ellis Falls.

There is a well marked parking area and you have to take a tunnel under the road on the third mile hike towards the 64 foot waterfall.  The trail is well maintained and features of stair the descend to the base of the falls that is well worth the walk for the spectacular view.  Granted I did not have a 30 pound Wesley boy strapped to me, but I think Kate felt it was well worth it as well.

Leaving the falls we continued south on 16 turning onto route 302 towards Bartlett.  Route 302 cuts right through the heart of the White Mountain National forest and Crawford Notch State Park.  This is one of, if not the most, scenic and beautiful road I have ever driven on.

We had destinations in mind and even though I made a couple impromptu stops to snag a couple pictures we passed some places that we are definitely going back to in the future.  Which is exciting knowing we have a reason to return and explore more.

From 302 we turned onto Route 3 south which turns into I-93 south through Franconia Notch State Park into Lincoln.  We stopped in Lincoln to check out Fadden's General Store.  It's hyped as having the best Maple Syrup in New Hampshire.  It was a bit of a let down, but we did buy some of their syrup and Kate got a maple cream soda. It was terrible, but very creamy.

Next we stopped at Chutter's second location which features a 60 foot candy counter.  I have wanted Frooties so bad but have not been able to find them anywhere in Maine and I don't want to buy them off the internet.  The Chutter's Littleton, NH store featured a 100 plus foot candy counter, the World's Largest, and they have Frooties.  Well Lincoln does not.  The store is nice, but it was a massive disappointment.

Staying in Lincoln we stopped for lunch at Black Mtn. Burger CO., a placed voted as New Hampshire's best burger.  The inside is really nice with a great set up, you can eat outside if you choose. The table we have was very high, which I was okay with because when you're eating a messy burger you want to be close to the table top keep the mess off your clothes.

Kate got the Swiss Mushroom Burger, I got the basic Cheddar Cheeseburger adding Bacon to it, we both got fries.  The burgers were fantastic!  Really one of the best I've ever had.  I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to go back there again.

Continuing our journey on the Kancamagus highway we exited the White Mountain National Forest in Conway New Hampshire and headed south to the Madison Boulder.

The Madison Boulder is the largest known erratic in North America at 83 feet long and 23 feet high and 37 feet wide.  Take a look at the photo with Wesley in front of it.  It's very impressive!

Continuing south east we cut back into Maine on route 25 into Porter stopping at the Porter-Parsonsfield Covered Bridge which spans the Ossipee River.  Originally built in 1876 it was rebuilt in 1999 and is closed to traffic.  Wesley loves him some closed covered bridges, walking across them, yelling, and apparently dropping rocks through the gaps floorboards.  He found a rock and picked it up and dropped it through, when he heard the plop of it hitting the water he let out a pleasantly surprised noise.  So we gathered up a lot more rocks and he went to town.

Driving home we passed a place that had multiple signs advertising penny candy. Even though I would most likely be disappointed I turned back to Sunrise Corner and ventured in, I was not to be denied on this day for they had frooties!!  Sadly they were 5 cents each but I didn't care and bought giant bag that had a handful of each flavor.  I spoke to the owner Jason who stated that they just added the candy 4 years ago and it was a success, it certainly was today.

We got home just about 7pm when Paul was getting there with the Pizza so we could watch the Money in the Bank PPV on WWE Network.  It was a great ending to a truly wonderful day!

Thanks for reading!

Later Readers!

Map of our Adventure

Grandad

I first met John Neighoff at Tuesday Night dinner back when Kate and I were dating.  I had been told all about him how even though he was in his late 80's he was still full of life, riding his motorcycle, golfing, flirting with the ladies at the bank and other things one wouldn't expect someone of his age to still be doing.  He sounded a lot like my grandfather Bump and I told Linda that he even in his late 80's he was still working at the golf course, playing a round every day, cutting his own firewood and other things one wouldn't expect someone of his age to still be doing.

Turns out they golfed at the same golf course and Grandad knew my Gram-Gram and Bump and spoke highly of both of them.  Once Grandad arrived Kate introduced us and he gave me an unexpectedly firm handshake and said something along the lines "So you're dating my Katie?" like I was doing something wrong.  I later learned that Grandad is very fond of his girls, not that he doesn't care for his boys, but the girls edge them out just a bit.

At dinner Linda told Grandad that I was Raymond's grandson.  I the mention of Bump's name his face light up, he got bright eyed and I was good as gold in his eyes from them on.  He then proceeded to tell me a story, one that he has since told me many times and I'm going to share it here.

"You know how I met your Grandfather?  I was heading into the clubhouse at the golf course and he was heading out, I saw he was wearing a Navy ship hat so I asked him, did you buy that or did you earn that?  He said "I earned this son of a bitch!"  We've been friends ever since, I really like your Grandfather."

They truly were friends, they didn't know each other in the war but they were in a lot of the same places, probably at the same time.  At our reception I looked over at one point and they were sitting together talking to each other, I don't know what it was about but they were laughing and having a good time.  I snapped a couple photos capturing the moment.

When Bump got sick Grandad asked me about him all the time.  When Bump died, after I left Gram's I wasn't sure what to do with myself but I knew that I had to go and tell Grandad in person because I just did.

When I arrived at his trailer my stomach jumped into my throat.  His car door and trunk were open, the lawnmower was sitting out in the middle of a half mowed lawn and the front door to his home was wide open.  I thought to myself "If I find Grandad laying on the ground or on the floor in his home I'm not going to be able to handle this."

I parked very cautiously looked around and called his name a couple times with no response.  I slowly walked up the stairs because I was dreading the worst and just didn't want that to be true.  I finally made it to his door and peered in and what I saw left me relieved and confused, he was sitting in his chair reading a book.

He was very happy to see me.  I asked him about his car and he said it started to rain so that's why he hadn't finished mowing the lawn.  I asked him about his car again and he said that's why he left his mower out.  So I just went outside and shut the trunk and door making sure the keys weren't left in it.

I told him about Bump, I started to cry, he started to cry, we talked a long time.  He thanked me for coming and telling him and said it was okay that we cried because Grandfathers are very special people and that Bump was very special man.  He gave me a big hug and told me that I should call him Grandad from now on, which I have.

My last visit with him we talked a lot about what he did in the war, the places he'd been and the things that he'd seen.  He told me about climbing to the peak of Mount Vesuvius and almost falling into the volcano.  A couple days later he was at a hospital visiting a friend, walking down a long hallway with a window at the end he was looking at Vesuvius when it suddenly erupted, March 18, 1944.

We had a really great conversation that day talking about coming home from the war, meeting his wife, moving to Maine, the gas stations he owned and more.

I only had the pleasure of knowing Grandad for a little over 3 years, but he, as well as the rest of Kate's family welcomed me and Canaan & Addison into their family like we had always been there.

Thanks Grandad