What upppp - Amie and Dan are in their final days!

Hey so this is Amie reporting for amie and Dan. Pretty sure we last wrote from Sturgeon Falls, Ontario. Basically since then we made our way across Canada on the 17, the most treacherous and worst highway ever spawned by mankind. Apparently it's known as the "death strip" or something in Ontario. Anyway, we actually got a short car ride before Deep River by some friends, Paul and Kathy, that we made in a cafe. It was torrential rain out and the highway was essentially unbikeable, so that was a lucky find! (better alive than OCD!) After Deep River we got off highway 17 as fast as we could, making our way south on some more minor highways and back roads. We got a little lost new Renfrew, and ultimately ended up biking 137 miles from Deep River to Carleton Place... I don't recommend it.

From Carelton Place we crossed the border back into the U.S. at Cornwall. Southern Ontario is a cute maze of minor highways (NONE of which run directly east-west...) studded with small towns, some of which date back to the late 18th century. There is a lot of French, but the primary language is definitely still English.
At the border we had no trouble at all. In fact, when asked if we'd purchased anything in Canada that we needed to disclose, I said, "I think I have an orange...? But that's it."
The border patrolman responded, "Yeah. You probably don't have an orange."
"You're right, no orange."
"Head on through have a nice day ladies."
So yeah, I totally got my Canadian orange into the U.S.

We camped that night in Westville, NY. Next morning we were up and out, determined to make it as far into Vermont as possible. We took the ferry across Lake Champlain, and started up into the hills of Vermont. Northern New York (and I mean like... southern Canada) had begun to sprout hills, but Vermont grows them in full force. We took highway 15 through about half of Vermont and were essentially ALWAYs on an incline, either heading straight up or straight down. We wound our way through cute little towns nestled into the hills, ate some Vermont cheese and surprisingly delicious gas station pizza, slept in Jeffersonville after 101 miles, and later today hit the New Hampshire border.

Jen Willey, Danielle's mom, met us, picked us up, and took us out to dinner! Then we drove east to Danielle's house in Lewiston, Maine, where we are sleeping for the night. Tomorrow, Jen will drive us back out west, and we will bike our way into Lewiston for some semblance of legitimacy. Then, on Saturday, we plan on sleeping in, cooking a great breakfast, and making our leisurely way to the Atlantic Ocean!!!