A weekend in the Whites

The original plan was for a long Father's Day ride, but with great weather in store that plan spiraled into a long ride concluding with the family meeting us for some swimming, lunch and laughs. The one day extravaganza evolved one step further into a weekend in the White Mountains, hotels, indoor water parks and ice cream cones.  At one point there was discussion of 4 adults and 5 kids sharing a room, but that was quickly discarded and 2 rooms were secured in North Conway.  Strava routes were made and late Saturday morning Matt and Eliot headed west along Sebago lake, into the foothills of Bridgton and finally over Hurricane Mountain.  

 Matt tapping out the tempo along the Shores of Sebago

 All smiles, as we have yet to tackle Hurricane Mtn

With our fabulous wives tending to the kids (aided by an indoor water park at the hotel) the dads were free to wrack up 80+ miles and 6,000 ft of climbing as we crisscrossed the Bridgton foothills. Not knowing what he was getting into, Matt failed to load the 11-28 cassette for the 17% grade on Hurricane Mountain.  It didn't seem to slow him down as he still made the climb look effortless, but perhaps that was b/c Eliot was so far behind that he couldn't see him!

Matt, the little blue dot up the road, making the pitch of Hurricane look easy

Matt drops his head when he hears Hurricane is 1200' of climbing

Eliot, 80 miles in, ready to tackle the White Mountains

Once at the hotel, the Dad's quickly changed and joined the festivities at the water park.  It involved climbing too many stairs to get to the top of the 3 story high slide, but we were not ones to say no to the little ones! 

Eliot and Matt with dueling shoulder riders.

No plan goes off without a hitch, and this weekend was no exception.  After a great dinner, ice cream and 10 minutes on the playground, Eliot's daughter, Marian, took a header off the jungle gym and broke her arm.  In the moments when Eliot was holding his daughter in one arm, and supporting her broken arm in the other, Matt sprung into action, ran back the car and drove it to the scene of the accident with the speed of an Indianapolis 500 racer. He later retrieved Marian's prized stuff animal and delivered it to the hospital to help bring some calm to a high stress environment.  Eliot and Julia were incredibly grateful to have such compassionate and caring friends around when things started to get a little hectic.  Amazingly, now that the arm is set and the needles are behind her, Marian has hardly missed a beat.  Kids are amazingly resilient!

Staying out until midnight at the North Conway Emergency room was not conducive to an early AM training ride  (Matt and Eliot had planned a 6 gap ride) so the plan evolved one last time.  The bags were packed, cars loaded up and the Dads pulled out on their official Father's Day ride, a ride back home.  

2 days, 200 miles, 15,000' of climbing and ice cream sandwiches at Cumby's. It was a busy weekend for everyone!