Just a block from our motel in Darby we found a pretty good bakery called Stud Muffin. Amazingly, in the middle of Montana, they had some of the best coffee we’ve had yet. They even used a different brand of beans for their espresso and drip coffee. So we opted for Americano’s (more than one). As a result of adding miles to the previous day and a change to our final destiation on today’s route our day was to be pretty short and contained a negative change in altitude. So we took it easy and looked forward to stopping at a few familiar spots along the way. The first was Valley Bike & Ski where we could air up the tires and chat with Randy and Annie, who we’d met last time around. Sure enough we found them just where we’d left them, working hard to make Hamilton MT a better place by sharing their love and passion for all things bicycle. There shop is best described as organized mayhem and contains hundreds of bicycles in all imaginable states of newness to disrepair. Both encouraged us to return with our mountain bikes as they promised we’d be blown away by the amazing riding we’d find in the nearby hills. Our next stop was Gianvito’s Italian Market and was high on our list of reasons why we decided to make the journey again this year. The market’s owners, Mario and Kelly, had treated us like family during our first visit and the hand crafted panini’s were out of this world. As we entered Kelly was standing at the register and the expression on her face was as if she’d seen a ghost. “I was just looking at your photo a few weeks ago and thought we’d never see you again!” she said as she gave Jupiter and I a hug. Soon after we arrived we were introduced to D’angelo, another “east side” Italian who seems to have mave their market his 2nd home and made the afternoon even more entertaining. I won’t go into all the details but we spend nearly 2 hours visiting, feasting and enjoying their contagious Italian mannerisms and sense of humor. Our next stop was Ahava Coffee, which is located in an old victorian style house on the south side of Stevensville MT. Due to the length of our previous stop and the distance between the two we had to put the hammer down to get there before their 4pm closing and succeeded with -1 minutes to spare (4:01). As expected the latte’s were as amazing as the coffee cake and lemon blueberry muffin. Yes we eat a lot. The final stop was less extravagant, a gas station a few miles from our campground which had a Quizno’s that provided a delicious chef salad that we split. We also picked up a milk which we placed in a make-shift cooler (3 plastic bags w/ice) to enjoy later that night we the remaining cookies we’d picked up at the Fluffy Butt Hut.