Shenan and Anna Do America!!

We made it! After around 32 hours of cross country driving (and listening to about every CD we have ever owned) we made it all the way to Flagstaff, Arizona.  We started early in the morning on 6/2 and made it to Little Rock, AR by that evening after a brief lunch stop in Nashville. Day two after a quick off road to Muskogee, OK ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iYY2FQHFwE ) we reached Oklahoma City for lunch and a stop at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial.  If you've never had a chance to see that memorial, I totally recommend it.  We spent the night on day two in Amarillo, TX...not much there except the Big Texan Steak Ranch (http://www.bigtexan.com/) which we decided to pass on. There's always the way back to take the 72 oz steak challenge. On day 3, we stopped in Albequerque, NM's Old Town area which is really nice and finally drove into Flagstaff around 3 in the afternoon. 

Things I learned on the trip: 1. Crossing times zones going west is awesome; driving back losing hours is going to be terrible  2. There is a Sonic at every other exit from Arkansas to Arizona 3. There is literally nothing in Arkansas

Flagstaff is a great place to live.  It's kind of like a big Chapel Hill/Carboro.  Lots of hippies, natural foods, and live music. The first day here, we happened upon the Flagstaff Hullabaloo which was a downtown festival chock-full of chainmail, wings, and other extravagant costuming.  We have also been very impressed with all of the hiking/outdoor sports to be had and have tried to do at least one thing a day after work. We have seen the Meteor Crater, Sunset Crater, Wupatki National Monument, Elden Mountain, and the Grand Canyon so far. Today we plan to go to Sedona.



Our Clinic experience so far has been really great. We have been jumping around from the Winslow (base) Clinic to two other clinics located far into the Navajo Reservation at Leupp and Dilkon.  Everything on the reservation is subject to Indian Law, so as I was told on one of the trips out there, "If you want to speed you better have $50 or a case of beer ready."  Generally the clinics are set up in a double wide trailer, but have CCD receptors, new ADEC chairs, and one site even has continental delivery system.  Most are associated with other medial clinics also for people living on or near the reservation.  Specialists come in on a  weekly basis to take care of some of the more specific professional needs such as implant placement, oral surgery, and orthodontics.  Basically, there is a lot going on all the time at this very small clinic and I know that we are both excited about what we may get to see in the coming weeks.

There are two Tufts students with us and they are both nice.  Interestingly, one is a guy that I worked with at UNC before starting dental school.  We saw them the first two days and haven't seen much since due to travel to different clinics.  Tufts students can get credit for endo on rotations! Wouldn't that be nice...  Like many of you have commented, I feel and have been told by our attendings that students from NC are very prepared for these rotations.  I haven't noticed it, but apparently even the other students who are here with us are not as comfortable jumping right in as we are.  Go UNC!!

Vegas next weekend if anyone wants to meet us!!