New England Vacation – Day 10: More of New Hampshire, Then on to Maine

Day 10 was mostly a calm, good day, punctuated by one short but intense burst of anger.

We would be on our way toward Maine, but had a few sights to see before we left New Hampshire.

We stopped at Flume Gorge and walked the short trail. The weather would get hot later in the day, but in the morning this wooded trail was cool and comfortable, perfect for a nice walk.

As we followed the trail, we came to the most spectacular part, where a narrow gorge had formed.

And at the end of the trail, we came upon a small waterfall.

After we left that area, we drove the Kancamagus Highway, designated as an American Scenic Byway. The highway cuts a path through the White Mountain National Forest.

As the road was very curvy and featured a couple of hairpin turns, we advised Kai not to use the iPad. And when he is not on the iPad in the car, he tends to fall asleep. So, he missed the most scenic parts of the drive.

When he awoke, he told us that we had to find a bathroom “RIGHT NOW!”

Alas, we had come to a construction zone where one side of the two-lane highway was shut down, and traffic was held up on our end until the cars going the other way had finished their turn.

Kai started screaming.

We told him that we would try to find a bathroom as soon as we could but he would have to hold it for a little while.

His screaming got really intense. We told him that we heard him and understood his urgency, his screaming just got more and more intense. There is no way I can overstate how angry and upset he was.

Although I tried to stay calm, his constant screaming was really difficult to take.

He is not a young child anymore. He should be able to ‘hold it’ for a while. And he should be able to give us a warning instead of suddenly having a state of emergency.

Is this is how it will always be with him? Will he never learn to think ahead? Will he always get this angry when faced with frustrations?

After showing improvement in his earlier years, it feels like things have stalled out the past year or two. His anger is worse and his frustrations are getting harder to deal with. These days, when he gets this upset, his anger is directed at us in a very nasty way.

When it was our turn to finally to drive through the construction zone, we came upon a gas station immediately after.

Thank goodness.

He was still angry at me – somehow it was all my fault – but at least the crisis was over.

Eventually he calmed down, and we had a peaceful drive the rest of the way.

During the whole state of emergency, we had crossed over into Maine – my 50th state! – but we weren’t in any mood to mark the milestone.

In late afternoon, we reached our destination for the next couple days – Bar Harbor. And we had plenty of time to go to the pool.

We enjoyed a seafood dinner where we sat outside and watched the crowd of tourists.

We had a very friendly waiter who chatted with Kai about the games he was playing on the iPad, and got him to smile and even answer a few questions.

Let’s see what else Maine has in store for us.