Best BBQ in Tahelquah

After working hard all morning in Tahelquah, six of us went to lunch at the best BBQ in town, Fish's BBQ (105 E. Ballentine) is a little tin shed, formerly a garage I think, at the end of a gravel parking lot. You almost think you've come to the wrong place. But GO IN! It's amazing food. I ordered the Badwich- a sandwich piled with fried bologna, brisket, and a hot link. I kid you not. It's amazing. Add curly fries and you have an amazing, artery clogging, delicious meal. You have to go.

Fraction of conversation at lunch:

Tangy: Can we (the dental staff at Wilma P. Mankiller Indian Health Clinic) take your boat out on the lake with you sometime?
Dr. Looney: Sure, as long as it's not Saturday or daylight!

Migrant/Seasonal Head Start

Dr. Robert Reyes, Dr. Heather Cox, Dr. Joshua Looney, Dr. Bryan Bratton, Sarah Marshall RDH, Ha-Le Tran RDH, Cindy Pierce RDH, Amy Armstrong, Christin Hitt...just to name a few who invested in the Migrant/Seasonal Head Start Program. I don't know about you all, but I had a rockin' good time, despite the 100 degree heat index. The staff from the Texas Migrant Council were amazingly organized, dedicated and hard working. And of course, the children were beautiful. They are why we do this after all.

Great Salt Plains State Park

Marsha Price, Lead Dental Assistant who traveled with us to Cherokee, took these photos at the Great Salt Plains State Park. Thought I'd share.

Cherokee

Karen Hawkins about Cherokee: "You can watch a dog run away for four days from here."

Karen is the former Mayor of Cherokee and Chairwoman of the Great Salt Plains Health Center Board. She and husband Lon also own and run the Cherokee Inn and neighboring restaurant, Cherokee Station. We had a delicious meal at the Cherokee Station, including prime rib, which Karen and Lon raised. What else does this woman do! Oh, her father, Dr. Cole, was a dentist in OKC for many years.

The mobile dental van was in town for Friday and Saturday and we made quite a show, I think, with our big smiling winnebago, and staff and volunteers wandering around town with our logoed shirts and scrubs.

First Old Man: I feel old and tire today.

Second Old Man: Not me, I feel just like a baby.

First Old Man: How can you say that?!

Second Old Man: I don't have any hair or teeth, and I just peed my pants.

A little joke told to us by one of Cherokee's friendly senior citizens while we enjoyed our breakfast at Ms. Dottie's Diner.

Of course, there were the usual heart-breaking dental cases. One woman ran out of gas in Alva on her way to her appointment. An oil field worker picked her and her husband up off the side of the road and brought them to Cherokee. We did what we could for her, but she has a serious bone infection and needs to see an oral surgeon. Unlikely to happen since she has no money for gas to get home, or the pain pills prescribed to ease her suffering, much less for a trip to the oral surgeon. The same friendly saviour offered to take them back to their stranded car. People are just that nice in the Cherokee Strip.

Many other adults with rampant decay who haven't set foot in a dentist's office for decades. One 40-something man thought his last visit to the dentist was probably in 7th or 8th grade. Dr. Baguidy, a public health dentist working on the van for both days, likened the dental conditions of the patients to a third world country. I assured her I see the same all over the state, not just in this county.

Gunk

The Winnebago is in the shop getting some fine tuning, and I'm taking all of next week off! Yay! The tank that holds the gunk that gets sucked up with the vacuum from the surgical suction and saliva ejectors is in need of repair. Actually, it's the hose that connects the vacuum to the holding tank. It came loose and "gunk" leaked all over that compartment. Eeewww! So it's in the shop getting the hose reconnected and a new release valve put on the tank so it's less disgusting to empty. Hopefully it will be a more pleasant experience. In my family I'm the one who has to clean up the dog barf and take care of sick kids. Apparently at the ODF I'm the one who has to empty the worst of the three waste tanks :)

On July 7th we're off to Tahlequah to serve the children at the Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Program. I REALLY need to learn Spanish.

Bixby, OK

Saturday I left OKC at 6:30 a.m. with assistant Angela DeLong, on my way to Bixby, OK. My mistake was relying on the lady inside my GPS - the one who tells me to "take the motorway". Who says that anyway? So she leads me to NORTH Tulsa and everyone knows Bixby is south of Tulsa. This made me very late and I hate being late. It takes awhile to unbungee and set up, and patients were waiting. So were the awesome Dr. Lindsay Smith and Dr. Miranda Ruleford. And the equally amazing assistant, Jamie Wooten. We saw 11 patients and provided treatment of over $8,000! Dr. Smith had done all the screening in advance, so when the patients arrived we were ready to roll.

We grabbed lunch at the apprently world famous Scotts Old Fashion Burgers, right there on Dawes in Bixby. It was just a block down from where we had parked the dental van. REALLY good burgers, tots and curly fries. Not on my plan for healthy eating, but worth it.