DAY 9 Once you go Omak you don't go back

A tight cassette lockring awaited to be delivered to the bike shop in the morning. Call after call they never answered. Not wanting to ride 20 miles and find that the shop wouldn't be opened, we rode to ace hardware and grabbed a wrench with enough leverage to pop the cassette off. Lacing and trueing was alot faster than removing the gears. As Hank finished the others started to cook breakfast burritos to get us up waconda pass and to republic. With a full stomach we bathed in the sun, and slowly the hours passed. Wanting to catch up on the blog we road 2 miles to safeway where free wi-fi was available. Blogging and eating dairy queen, a mechanic from the local bike shop walked out of safeway. (Guess the shop was open.) Talking with us for a bit about touring and how much gear we were carrying Derk invited us for mojitoes at his place. With a ride ahead alcohol didnt sound to appitizing so we politely declind. A couple of minutes passed as we changed our mind. Hank and Kane hopped on their bikes and rode after him, he instantly disapeared. Sitting back down at safeway for our 6th hour we finally made the decision to sleep at Omak. Recalling what Derk told us, we crossed our fingers it wasnt true; "the sand will suck you in, get out while you can."