Petrified Forest/Painted Desert

Sunday, Mike and I decided to check out a relatively close national park. The Petrified Forest / Painted Desert National Park is less than an hour east of Winslow. The park contains one of the largest collections of petrified wood on the planet. It's literally strewn all across the park and thanks to people in the 1930's with lots of forsight, it should be there for people to see for many years to come.The National Parks Service does a wonderful job of making the beauty of our country accessible. Lots of people have spent countless hours trying to figure out how to make it easy for folks to see some very interesting sights. Personally, I'm glad the parks are easily accessible. I do get annoyed occasionally when people (and their kids) have little respect for the parks, though. I've found that if you stay off the beaten trail, though, you're almost guarenteed to lose the masses AND find something spectacular.

For instance, less than a quarter mile of easy hiking/walking off the road in the Petrified Forest park yielded some spectacular views of nearly intact petrified logs. To the north, a moderate 1/2 mile hike into the painted desert gave us spectacular views from a perspective that very few folks have seen. I guess the point here is that the best things are rarely on the surface. Dig a little deeper on occasion and you may just be delighted!

Here are a few painted desert pics from the iPhone... not the best pictures or resolution, but they get the point across.

Sedona on Saturday

We're one full week into work at the clinic in Winslow. It's good work and the days generally fly by. On Friday we worked at a smaller satellite clinic in Dilkon, Az. Even though the clinic is smaller, it's still in great shape.

After work on Friday, we hauled tail into Flagstaff (it's a good 45min drive one way) for some sushi and Transformers 2. While it was no Shiki Sushi, the sushi at Hiro's was pretty good and the rolls were huge.

I ended up getting my favorite Lobster roll and Shrimp Tempura roll and had trouble eating them all! Transformers 2 was good as well. It touched on all the usual 'guy movie' categories such as large explosions, hot women, fast cars and robots with guns.
Saturday, we woke up early and headed to Sedona for a day of hiking. The area is about 30 minutes south of Flagstaff and is incredibly picturesque. A few of our hiking books suggested a rugged dirt road outside of Sedona which leads to several trailheads in the Oak Creek Canyon area of the Red Rock - Secret Mountain Wilderness Park.
Our first hike of the day was a 2 mile, moderate trail leading to a natural sandstone arch called Devil's Bridge. The hike up was pretty strenuous in the high altitude, but the views were spectacular (and yes, that's me standing on the arch). Here are a few pictures from the hike:

The second hike was a bit longer, but gave us some spectacular views of the canyon and another sandstone arch called Vultee Arch. The country is pretty rugged and the hiking can be difficult at times, but the views are definitely worth it!

Settling in nicely

We've been in Winslow for 4 days now and I'm apparently still running on eastern time. Arizona decided not to buy into the daylight savings shenanegans, so the sun is up by 5AM. It's really disorientating. Yesterday, I took a short run in the AM and felt the difference 5000ft makes! I was really sucking wind!

In the clinic, we've been settling in nicely. We're working with a lot of good folks as well as doing a lot of good work.

The clinic is well-stocked and nicely built. There are 5 operatories. We rotate in to one of the ops whenever someone comes in. We treat patients by appointment as well as walk-in and try to see as many as possible. With 3 students (2 UNC, 1 Tufts), 2 residents, and 1 staff dentist, we can usually do a ton of good work. Below are some pictures of the clinic and some of the folks we're working with.

After work today, Mike and I decided to head to La Posada for my b-day dinner.

The place has gotten great reviews from the local folks as well as the intar-web. One of the local favorite dishes here in Northern Arizona is Chorro. It's lamb that's been raised on the local reservation. I had the Chorro sampler, a nice glass of wine, and a snifter of pear brandy for dessert. Tasty!

We've been trying to figure out what to do this weekend. On the 'potentials' list is hiking in the painted desert / petrified forest area, seeing meteor crater, and heading down to Sedona. I'm definitely up for some hiking since I picked up a pair of Merril light hiking shoes in Albequerque.

Working Man

Today was our first day at the Winslow Indian Health Care Center. The clinic is HUGE and covers all aspects of health care. Our dental clinic is in a smaller out-building and houses 5 operatories and all the supporting equipment. The clinic is well-stocked and looks really nice.
We started work around 8:15, got the tour, our ID badges, and jumped right in. The clinic staffs several full time dentists as well as 2-3 AEGD (Advanced Education in General Dentistry) residents in addition to being a rotation site for students. Everyone was very friendly and helped us out whenever needed.
I'll take and post some pictures of the clinic inside and out tomorrow. Tonight (we're 3 hours behind the east coast right now, so it's just 6PM), Mike and I will likely go for a quick run and then relax at the hotel for the remainder. My biggest puzzle for the night is that my iPhone won't sync since I upgraded iTunes. I guess I'll have to play around with the phone and computer to see what's going on. Feel free to leave comments if you have suggestions!

New Mexico, Arizona

Saturday we drove about 4 hours to Albuquerque, NM where Mike's parents have a house. The town is set in an interesting valley which is bordered by the Sandia range to the east and the Rio Grande to the west. To take our minds off driving, we decided to take the tram up to the Sandia peak and hike around a bit.

Albuquerque is about 7000ft in altitude and the weather is perfect. Up on the peak at over 10,000 ft, the temperature

drops about 20 degrees and there's a strong wind, making it quite chilly. I was really sucking wind on the hike at that altitude! We ate BBQ at The County Line. At this point, I think I'm done with BBQ for a while!

Sunday we made our way from New Mexico into Arizona. Since it was a short day of driving, we decided to hit a few of the sites along the way.

First, we stopped to check out La Ventana Arch in the El Malpais park. El Malpais itself is a HUGE area of ancient lava flows that are pretty much impassable. There are a few trails in and around them, but the best view is from mesas above. The pictures I have didn't turn out well, but it was breathtaking.

After hiking and viewing a few other parks, we headed towards Winslow Az. Tonight we checked in and got settled before meeting a few of Mike's friends in Flagstaff. It was a good time, but we were both pretty exhuasted.

Tomorrow we start work at the Winslow Indian Health Care Center. I'm excited to start work and hope we can dive right in!

BBQ, day two

2 days, roughly 22 hours of driving and about 1200 miles down. It's been a long ride, but the time has passed well. Today we left Memphis in the shadow of the Pyramid and headed west into Arkansas. My last journey through Arkansas was rough. Literally. This drive was relatively bump-free and scenic. It's amazing how much more of the country you see when you're not the only one in the car!
The Tour de BBQ rolled on into two states today. For lunch we stopped at Rick's Rib House in Fort Smith, Arkansas. While I didn't get the ribs, which looked great, I did have a great pulled pork and chopped brisket sandwich with sweet potato fries. I've never had chopped brisket before and it was excellent.
Our next destination was Oklahoma City. We rolled into town about 4PM and decided to check out their interesting downtown area called Bricktown with one of Mike's friends. It was a cool area complete with a AAA baseball stadium and was withing walking distance to the OKC Thunder's arena. After a short walking tour, we settled in to Earl's Rib Palace. The Ribs at Earl's were excellent and had a wonderful dry rub followed up with a tasty tomato sauce. I also tried the brisket which was wonderful. Clearly brisket is the meat of choice for BBQ in the Oklahoma/Texas area and they really do it well.
Tomorrow, we're driving on to Albuquerque (a short 4 hour drive) and tooling around town a bit. I've heard good things about the city, so it should be fun. I also dug my camera out of the bottom of my bag, so hopefully I'll get some good pictures from here on out.
Mike's quote of the day is, "Amarillo is one giant strip-mall" down I40...and in the dark it seems pretty accurate. We'll see how it looks in the morning. For now, it'll work just fine as a place to rest and recharge for the night.

On the road again...

1,999. That's the approximate milage between Chapel Hill, NC and Winslow, Az. Let's call it, "one heck of a roadtrip." Today was the start of this roadtrip, but here's the caveat: Not only was I packing up for a two month journey out west, I was also packing my entire house. Yes, I decided to move my stuff into storage to save some $$$ over the summer and eventually move into a sweet place in Southern Village.

Needless to say, the last few days were a nightmare. Thankfully, the to-do list on the iPhone has helped me through most of it. I fully realize I'm not the most organize person and it's helpful to have a device that can let me update my to-dos whenever a thought pops into my head. And speaking of the iPhone, OS 3.0 was just realeased! I'll probably wait until I get settled in Winslow before I update.

We got on the road this AM around 9AM (later than I wanted, but completely my fault) and got into Memphis around 9PM (Central). This included several gas stops and a stop in Nashville for dinner. We deemed the drive out to Winslow the "Tour de Barbecue" and have vowed to have some form of BBQ for every non-breakfast meal. Our first stop was at Jim n' Nicks BBQ in Nashville. We arrived about 5PM just before the dinner crowd and had a seat. Jim n' Nicks had a good selection of BBQ styles (Brisket, Pork, Chicken, and Turkey Cutlet), but I had to get the one and only pulled pork BBQ. I have to say, it was some of the better pork I've tasted. The meat was smoked well over what tasted like Hickory and the sauce (while tomato based) was tangy and had a lot of flavor. All in all, I'd give it high marks all the way around.

After a nice meal, we headed off for Memphis. Our hotel is strategically located next to a Mexican restaurant called Margaritas Mexican Restuarant and Cantina. The nice lady at the front desk gave their margaritas and emphatic two thumbs up, so we decided to have a drink or two before turning in. The pitcher brought to our table was full of tequila-laden goodness and made a nice nitecap for a long day of travelling.

Tomorrow, we keep on I40 West. We're still about 18 hours away from Winslow and will likely hit a few sights on the way. It's been a long time since I've been out on the road for real and I like it. There's a great many things I love in and about Chapel Hill, but I've been feeling the itch to get away for a while now. Two months out west ought to do it!