Vermont and Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Naomi joined us in the afternoon as we neared her house, then 

hosted us for the night, then biked with us again in the morning! 

At Clarks Brother's farm in Ashfield NY 

Day 42: 75 Miles Started day in NY, passed through VT, and finished in MA
Thank goodness we did extra milage the day before. We have not had hills since South Dakota, and not had mountains since the Continental Divide. New York was killing us with hills, humidity, and mental exhaustion. Our friend Naomi messaged us and wanted to meet us on our route weather dependent. On our way to her house she asked us our route and quickly informed us the way that our phones was routing us was going to take us on gravel, dirt, and to a bridge that was broken. We were thankful that we had her as a local resource, she rerouted us and put us on paved roads the entire way and met us. When we saw her crest over the hill we were very excited and screamed "NAOMI!!" after hugs we went on our way for the 15 or so miles back to her house. She gave us a tour of her farm The Clarks Brothers in Ashfield NY and we went out to dinner at the Lake house just a few miles from her house.

Picture of Ashley at a candy shop that we pulled over for 

because it said "free samples daily"...so 10am chocolate :)

Day 43: 89 Miles
Naomi, joined us for the first 15 or so miles of the morning. When biking I realized that she is the first person to join us on our journey (that is not a stranger), and she would be the only one to ever join us. Her dad also came along for the ride and we got a decently early 6:30 am start for our day. New York was still killing us with the hill so it was a slow moving day but we had the motivation that we were going to another friends house and Kelsey's boyfriend would be meeting us there with groceries to make a dinner so that we could have a relaxing evening. After a slow first half of the day due to hill, we picked up pace for the second half and made it to Nashua NH by 3:30pm, beating Nate ;) After a good shower we cooked up some Turkey burgers, brussel sprouts, and sweet potato fries and settled in for an evening of chatting and story telling.

Day 44: 51 miles, total milage of trip 3,024 miles and over 51,000 feet of elevation gain. States that we passed through: Washington, Montana, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Providence of Ontario, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

T-shirts that Papa Barklund made for everyone to wear at the finish

Using our noodles for their "normal" intended purpose 

Celebration dinner at Waterworks in Winooski, VT 

Probably one of our quicker paced days since we were excited to finish. We completed the 51 miles in just about 4 hours. There is a special feeling when you crest a small hill and see the Atlantic Ocean straight in front of you. We were greeted at the beach by some of Kelsey's family and Nate. After a photo shoot that took longer than necessary we put our noodles to use (their intended use) and jumped in the ocean. The next few days were filled with good food, different varieties of exercise, and good times with family and friends. Thank you for following our journey online, we have had the pleasure of safely pedaling across the United States; along the way we met wonderful people, ate delicious food and ice cream, and enjoyed the great outdoors.


-Till our next journey, happy trails!

New York

Brenda and David Horton's farm house 

Their mailing address is 1936 Balfour Street, Fenwick Ontario L0S 1C0

There was an ulta race going on, so we reaped 

the benefits of trailside water and heed 

Eric Barklund's house and family. 

133 Butler Drive Pittsford NY 14534

Day 37:
We slept soundly till the the alarm sound cut through the country silence. Meandering downstairs we (Brenda and us) shuffled around the kitchen to whip together some quick french toast with fresh eggs from the backyard, Canadian maple syrup, and fresh berries. Brenda calls french toast "eggs and toast but tastier" and she is right. After a satisfying breakfast we were off to the boarder. After some photos at the boarder on the bridge with the falls in the background we passed through the pedestrian entrance to the USA, which the boarder patrol was not thrilled about although there were at least 6 of them just inside sitting telling us "we should have gone in the line with the cars". Once into the USA we hopped on bike route 5 to head out of the tourist filled area and into the country of New York. The route was quite simple for the day route 5 on the roads to the Erie Canal Trail which is about 362 miles from Buffalo NY to Albany NY. Although we are not normally the biggest fans of gravel, we were okay with the trail because it is finely crushed stone away from the road and well maintained. We spent the rest of the day on the trail, stopping for ice cream at Tinsel and chatting with other cyclist on the trail. There was a 15 mile stretch just before ice cream that we rode with 3 other individuals who were on a bike tour. They have been going out for tours for the past 12 years using vacation time to travel and bike across each of the states. This year they were starting at Niagara Falls traveling through NY, up VT, and across NH. The 15 miles with them passed quickly as we shared stories and advice, it was refreshing to talk to new individuals when majority of our time is spent together. Eric's house (Kelsey's second cousin) was just 2.5 miles off the trail; biking to friends and families houses invokes a certain next level of independence as it is quite the experience to be able to roll up to someones house, enjoy time with them, then quiet literally "roll out" in the morning.
milage: 89 miles (2,573 Total)


Day 38: Pittsford to Liverpool, NY
We are getting quite spoiled lately waking up in plush beds and enjoying a breakfast made in a kitchen compared to oatmeal in a ziplock on the side of the road....but we won't complain :) After a relaxing morning we rolled out of Eric and Liz's house headed for a friends house in Liverpool NY where we planned to take a day off. From the house we made our way back to the trail and spent the majority of the day on the trail till it continued on road where we followed route 31 for the afternoon. We were moving quite slow with the later start and hot weather made us drag on. We embraced the slow speed and enjoyed a luxurious lunch as Subway with our gift cards from Maggie and Mamma Mitson. The afternoon brought in a horrible rain storm that caused us to pull off the road and hide under a tree for a few minutes till it passed. Once drenched by the storm we continued on the final 6.5 miles to our friends house where we arrived looking like drown rats, we stripped off our sopping clothes in the garage and took warm showers before going out for dinner were we enjoyed a large salad and sliders. Liverpool treated us quite well, and we looked forward to our day off the following day.

Day off at Caitlin Corrice's house in Liverpool NY 

Day 39: Liverpool
Finally we had a day with minimal chores where we could actually relax. Kelsey still woke up at 6:15 so she spent the morning hours on a walk around the neighborhood before Ashley and Caitlin woke to go out to breakfast at Bagelicious. After enjoying breakfast we relaxed in true American style lounging on the couches and watching about 3 hours worth of movies and TV. Once we felt sufficiently lazy we went to the small town of Liverpool to walk downtown, run an errand at the post office, and sit in a cafe to read for a few hours. We then enjoyed dinner at home making a signature Syracuse dish of Chicken Riggies (Rigatoni) and salad. Our rest day was complete with going to bed early in prep for our final days on the road.

Day 40: 75 miles
We have honestly been spoiled on this trip. Since South Dakota I would say that we have stayed in peoples houses 80% of the time, Kelsey actually joked that we probably could have even shipped the tent back but that it's nice to have it just in case we need it. We woke up early to get a good start to the day, since we know we don't do well with late starts. The preliminary plan was to go three 70 mile days to make it to a friends, then 91 to another friends, and 51 for the last day. We stuck mostly to the plan and went 75 miles to Monhawk. The day was unremarkable, most of it spent on the Erie canal trail, and other parts on back roads of NY. We had dinner at a pizza place called Yetti's and honestly wasn't the best. After dinner we went back to the trail to find a place to pitch tent, where we ended up under a gazebo. We spent the night reading our books before falling asleep.

Don't mind us, we are just making some tortilla 

wraps at a bus stop to avoid the rain 

Day 41: 89 miles
 Another day, we woke up with such high humidity that we were inside a cloud. We stayed on the Erie canal trail for most of the morning and aimed for a diner for breakfast 25 miles away. Arriving to the diner at 7:30 the waitress was surprised that we were already out riding (we didn't even tell her that it has already been almost 2 hours in the saddle). The breakfast was cheep and delicious. With our bellies full we continued on our way on the trail. As the day progressed we were crushing miles, so we convinced each other that we should do more miles today to ease tomorrow and have more time with our friend Naomi. Somehow we can easily talk each other into more miles. Towards the evening we rolled into a town just north of Troy, NY and went to the store to buy bagged salads for dinner, our new favorite thing. When we walked out of the store it started to rain; we had no idea where we were camping, and we were starving and wanted to find a place to sit and eat that was preferably outside of the rain. We messaged a friend who used to live around the area to see if she knew anyone and we biked to find a place to eat. Surprisingly bus stops are a great place to eat, they have benches, they are covered, and their is enough space to pull your bike in....so we ate dinner at a bus stop. Our friend messaged back with good news that she has a connection in town that said we could crash and it is only 2 miles away. We spent the night at Chris and Emily's house and we were happy that everything worked out because we could hear a pretty significant storm pass over during the early morning hours.

Canada

Ashley's birthday breakfast 

Day 35 & 36: Hotel and Ashley's birthday!
Because Ashley's birthday was August 10th (the day after this day), her parents promised us a hotel stay as a nice gift so that was the main motivator for the day. Nothing was particularly exciting during the day, just humid and flat. The original plan was to stay at a hotel in Ingersoll. We did our research to see which hotels in the area provided buffet style continental breakfasts, because priorities, and let Ashley's parents know which one we wanted. We got to Ingersoll pretty soon and did some grocery shopping so we could chill in the hotel later. Unfortunately for us, the hotel was sold out for a wedding and we were out of luck. But no need to panic, there was another hotel 10ish miles away that was just as good. We hauled ass and were greeted with an included dinner treat from Mama and Papa Mit's. It was amazing. With our bellies full and our room filled with air cooled from the AC, we slept like rocks for a full 8+ hours.

Luckily for us, the hotel was very full with tour buses and they pulled out the big guns for the buffet, It was quite the spread. Check out our photo! We took our time leaving the hotel and headed towards Niagara. We were off to meet up with Brenda Horton, a friend that we met when camping in Nova Scotia a few years prior. After we got to her lovely home and cleaned up a bit, we went out to dinner with live music. The food was great, the music was mediocre but the company was amazing. Brenda drove us around in her convertible to look at the falls from afar and dodge the enormous amount of tourists loitering about.

Ashley's birthday lunch. This is also the spot that 

Kelsey had fire ants crawl into her pants. 

Story: Fire ant story 

We were biking along and looking for a nice spot of land to plop our bodies, preferably in the shade, to eat lunch. We settled on a patch of grass that did not appear to be exactly anyone's land and out of site due to a few trees for cover. When wrapping up lunch my butt started to itch, I didn't think anything of it because this trip has caused my butt to have some very odd and uncomfortable pains. The stinging itch got worse so I put my hand down my short to itch, and pulled out 4 FIRE ANTS. I jumped up like a kernel in a pop corn maker and pulled my shorts down below my butt and started jumping around while brushing them off...oh and there was probably screaming occurring. Ashley helped by looking to see if there were anymore, but other than that she laughed and I don't blame her...looking back on it the situation was quite funny. In the moment my butt burned and itched for the next several hours. 

Michigan

Stomping grounds coffee shop

200 N Saginaw St, Durand, MI 48429

Waving goodbye to Ashley's parents who dropped us
off at the ferry to get into Canada. 

Dresden, ON. Town park where we listened to some 

bands while eating ice cream before we set up camp. 

Day 33 & 34:
The place we camped last night was next to the post office, which was greatttt for us... Right on schedule at 4:30am, the newspaper was dropped off by a man blasting his radio from his super cool minivan. Because Ashley sleeps like a dead person, she was not awoken by this fiasco but Kelsey was. Luckily, Kelsey had enough sense to move our bikes away from the back door of the post office so that the workers didn't get flustered by the presence of our bikes. We closed our eyes for a little while longer but eventually got up after a very large truck pulled in to deliver more mail. It did not rain in the night but it sure seemed like it. Michigan in the summer has a way of soaking your things and your bodies with moisture, so that is how our day started. In the afternoon, we stopped at a cute cafe (Stomping Grounds) in Durand, MI. The owner there was kind enough to let us hang out to beat the heat and provide us with lots of cold water. Afterwards, we continued east to meet up with Ashley's parents who were meeting us on our route to feed us and give us a place to sleep. We spent the evening refueling with homemade stew and bread that Ashley's mom made, followed by ice cream for dinner with the whole fam.

The next day, we had a late start because we wanted a half day off. We headed towards Algonac, MI to catch the ferry to Walpole Island, ON. It was a super tiny ferry packed with cars that had very little room for us and our bikes but it was cheap so who cares. We rode for only a couple hours for the rest of the day and found a nice concert in the park in the town of Dresden, ON. After the concert was over, we pitched our tent in between a couple trees and fell asleep.

Mileage update: 2296 total