I don't think what you're describing is really rurality. While it is true that rural NH towns tend to get a lot of through traffic for Mt Wash, Laconia, Dartmouth, etc; the same could be said for a lot of rural Maine. D-FC is a great, unique, example. However, a bigger contributing factor, in my opinion, is the fact that it's in the middle of the state, and not that it's rural. As I'm sure you know well enough, plenty of rural Maine gets a good bit of traffic come summer time.

Fryeburg, Ossipee Valley (Porter/Cornish) gets traffic for Conway, Fryeburg fair. Get up towards Carthage and Weld and you've got Mt Blue, Loon Lake, and Bigelow. Acadia pulls traffic through most of the state. NMW and Katahdin for Millinotcket, Medway, and Ashland.

And lastly, even with D-FC, it's just a short drive to Skowhegan or even Bangor to get some fancy eating. Certainly less than the 45 minute threshold.

I would also argue that a lot of folks in Houlton probably do cross over in Canada pretty regularly.

No arguments about VT, though. Nailed that one.