Just like we planned, we went to bed super early around 630 or 7 PM last night and woke up with the alarm at 4 AM today. And we were out the door of the motel and rolling out of Wisdom at 5:30. The town was dead so there was nowhere to have a cup of coffee, and there was none in the motel room, so we just cruised. It was really cold, in the low 40s, but at least that prevented mosquitoes from coming out. Vanesa, with her fantastic new Google Pixel 6 phone camera, took some really amazing shots of the Big Hole Valley at dawn and sunrise. It was a magical ride, with a gentle incline from the town of Wisdom up toward Chief Joseph Pass which was 20 something miles away, at an amazingly beautiful time of day. At one point, Vanesa spied a mama moose and her baby fairly close to the roadside and we stopped and got a quick video and picture. It was just a slight incline for quite a long while, and it didn’t become a real climb until about 3 to 4 miles from the top of the pass. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture at the top of Chief Joseph Pass because someone had stolen the sign from the top! The descent to Sula was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, super fast, and fantastic. Because it was still early in the morning, there was very little traffic. There were miles and miles of a 6%-ish grade down, on a really smooth and new roadway. There are a lot of sharp curves which made the descent fun as well. We just blasted and blasted down the steep 7 miles and then the less-steep 3-ish miles of that hill until we ended up in Sula, where we planned a to down steaming hot cup of coffee and a hot breakfast at the 39.5-mile mark of the day. We arrived at 9:45 AM having already done almost 40 miles!! Our plan was to eat quickly and then ride another 34 miles gentle downhill to Hamilton before the thunderstorms predicted between 1 and 3 PM. But…as we were parking our bikes, getting the dog situated, and pouring a cup of coffee upon entering the building, about 15 people headed into the restaurant and got in line to order literally 30 seconds before us. And we had to wait to order after all of them did. Still, we didn’t figure it would take all that long to get our food…it was only 10 or 15 people, and yes there was only one cook but there was another person helping. Well, 15 minutes ticked by, then it was a half an hour, 45 minutes, an hour, an hour and 15 minutes, an hour and a half, and then our food came. You might wonder why I hadn’t just canceled the order and grabbed a quick snack from the convenience store part of the café so we could get on the road. Well, because I was SO on top of things, immediately after we had placed our order I had walked up and paid for the food in advance because I wanted to beat all of the other people who would be trying to pay their bill after they finished eating so that we wouldn’t be delayed waiting for all of them again! Ironic, eh?So, at literally two hours after we arrived, we left on the road toward Hamilton. It was 11:47 AM, and thunderstorms were supposed to start in Darby, 17 miles away, at 1 o’clock, and at the same time 17 miles past that in Hamilton. We now figured we were gonna get wet and we could see the thunderstorms in our helmet mirrors inching ever closer behind us as we descended toward Derby. But the road was a gentle decline, traffic was light, we were full with calories and caffeine, and there wasn’t much wind. So we just put down the hammer and tried to beat the thunderstorm to Darby. And as it turns out, we did! Even with a brief stop to take photos of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, yes that ranch, from the popular TV show. (Vanesa: “oh my god, am I really only like a half-mile away from Kevin Costner?!). And then, once in Darby, when we checked the weather report, the storm had been pushed back to a 2 o’clock expected arrival and while the sky looked threatening it looked like we had some time before it rained. We decided that we would hammer forward again, fully expecting to get wet somewhere on the 17 miles between Derby and Hamilton but figured we would still arrive early enough that we would have plenty of time to dry out if we got a motel for the night rather than camping (given that we know it’s gonna rain again as several more expected thunderstorms pass through later this evening and in the early morning hours). So we pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed, and wouldn’t you know it, we made awesome time; and though the black clouds were on top of us about 5 miles outside of Hamilton, we didn’t get rained on. We headed straight to the bike shop where we aired up our tires and I purchased some more chamois butter. The next task was to find lodging. As it turns out, it’s damned expensive in little, ol’ Hamilton, MT. The Bitterroot Valley is popular and is exploding, and having Kevin Costner filming at a ranch just up the road doesn’t hurt their hotel industry either. So we paid $180 tonight for a little room similar to what we’ve been paying $75-100 elsewhere as of late. But we’re comfy and dry and don’t have to pack up a wet tent tomorrow morning when we leave at the crack of dawn once again. For dinner tonight, I was going to have the other half of the breakfast I got in Sula this morning, but when V walked up the street to get Thai takeout I changed my mind and told her I’d have the curry. She sat outside for 45 mins waiting for the restaurant to open up, and while doing so dodged the onset of the huge thunderstorm in which the sky opened up and it poured cats and dogs, and then was excited to order dinner…until they told her she couldn’t. They had too many reservations and walk-ins, they said, and they wouldn’t prepare any takeout, unless she was willing to wait until 7:45. It was only 5:00 so she said no way and came back to the motel, totally hangry. She grabbed a tortilla, spread some chunky peanut butter on it, put a half of a chocolate chip muffin on it and, voila, instant dinner. Now she’s Netflixing on her phone while I write this. We plan to first get 35-ish miles to the town of Lolo tomorrow, where our route turns left (west); but before we turn, we have to go 8 miles further north toward Missoula to the Petco to get a new bag of food for Maui and then turn around and come back to make the turn at Lolo. An extra 16 miles, yes, but important because no stores carry the kind of food she eats and Amazon was going to take a week to deliver it here for some reason…so we’ll just go get it ourselves. So we don’t know how far we’ll make it tomorrow but it’s quite likely we’ll be camping, regardless of weather, because we’re getting into a very remote section of western MT and then Idaho. We’ll probably have little cell reception for a few days as we traverse the gorgeous Lochsa and Clearwater River valley areas. I’ll update when I can.