Check out our May/June newsletter!
May/June 2021
A Road Trip to Remember Freezing Nights, Borrowed Gear, and a Giant Moose
go into the nearest town in the morning to find some warm — and cheap! — clothes.
And because it wouldn’t be an adventure story without one final mishap, we did have to deal with some car trouble toward the end of the trip. My dad had given me a credit card to use in case of emergencies, and I called to let him know we needed some repairs to get ourselves home. He footed that bill, so between Jeff and I, we had just enough money to spend the last night in a hotel. If you’ve ever spent an extended period of time outdoors camping in the cold night and sweating in the afternoon sun on hikes, you probably know how amazing it felt to have a comfortable bed to sleep on in a warm, dry room. That was far and away the warmest night of the trip! Despite the difficulties, or perhaps because of them, the trip was one for the record books. It was a great reminder to me of the beauty that is all around us and how important it is to take the time to appreciate the work of our creator. I don’t do much camping these days, but I try to remember to take in the sunset or just notice the way water ripples or trees swaying in a breeze. In difficult times, simple pleasures like this can mean a lot. As the days start to get longer and we press on toward summer, I hope you take some time to enjoy the warmth of the sun, the flowers in bloom, and just how nice a little fresh air can be.
Right after I graduated college, my best friend and roommate, Jeff, and I decided to
We didn’t get a great night’s sleep, and when we went into town, we didn’t find many warm winter clothes at the local K-Mart. It makes sense they weren’t selling winter clothes at that time of year! Counting our pennies, we picked up a few sweatshirts and carried on. Over the course of the next week, we were definitely roughin’ it. Sustaining ourselves on Goober for breakfast and lunch and beans and hotdogs for dinner, we trekked through Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone, and the Tetons. We saw some absolutely spectacular landscapes — pristine mountain lakes with a backdrop of snow-capped mountains. On a warm afternoon in the Tetons, I waded into one lake that had a perfect flat rock for laying and watching the clouds pass, and I’ll never forget the way the sky changed as a storm came in. During another night in the Tetons, we were trying to sleep in a tent and noticed the roof was sagging above us. Thinking the tent had collected a pool of rainwater, we switched positions so it wouldn’t drip on our head as we slept and decided to take care of it in the morning. When we woke up and unzipped the tent, there was a foot of snow all around us and on top of our tent — and a huge moose just yards away! We watched each other for a while, and I was in total awe of the giant creature.
take a weeklong road trip out west. We wanted to see some new terrain, camp, relax, and have a good time after a long final year of studying. The only hitch was that we didn’t have any camping gear, a car, or much money to our names. Being resourceful, I borrowed my dad’s car, and Jeff sourced some gear for us from a friend. Since it was June, we figured the weather would be nice and warm and that we wouldn’t need much. After a long drive from Ohio to Colorado, we arrived at Rocky Mountain National Park and were surprised to find there were plenty of open campsites for us to set up. We thought we’d lucked out! We set up our borrowed tent and camp stove, had a luxurious dinner of canned beans with cut up hot dogs (we were otherwise subsisting off of a Smucker’s product called Goober, which was a brilliant combination of peanut butter and jelly in a jar) and hit the hay to get plenty of rest before our first mountain excursion the next morning. It didn’t take long for us to realize that the nights in the mountains were freezing cold, even in June. We hadn’t brought any layers or jackets with us to keep warm, so we sought refuge in my dad’s old Chevy Impala for the night and vowed to
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Become a Savvy RV User
And Save Money on Your Summer Road Trip
This past fall, RV manufacturers reported a 31% increase in sales compared to 2019. This was no doubt related to an effort to stave off the spread of COVID-19, which had more families opting to take road trips and camp instead of going on tropical and European vacations. While the great outdoors can be the perfect affordable backdrop for family vacations, it doesn’t come without a cost.
camping. Walmart allows RV parking at no cost, but some locations pose safety concerns. To mitigate this, well-meaning RVers have listed Walmart locations with red flags. You can check them out at AllStays.com. Save on Fuel Fuel could be your biggest expense, but you can cut down on the inevitable by driving slower than 60 mph when it’s safe to do so. Once you hit 60 mph or above in your RV, your gas mileage will drop. Furthermore, you can keep your gas bill in check by sticking to trips within your state, planning your route to avoid unnecessary detours, and leaving early to miss the traffic. Each little action could make a big impact on your fuel bill. Re-Use Items in Your Home You may have a long to-buy list for your RV, but not everything on there may be necessary. Before With graduation and wedding season upon us, there will be no shortage of opportunities for photos that will become treasured family memories for years to come. If your teeth are keeping you from feeling photo ready, Briarfield Dental Care’s Bright4Life program can help you get the bright, confident smile you’ve always wanted! Your smile is the first thing people notice about you. A healthy, happy smile can transform your appearance. It’s no wonder having whiter teeth is the No. 1 aesthetic concern of most patients. Market research found that around the world, patients spend over $3.2 billion on teeth whitening each year. This is why Briarfield Dental Care is offering our patients a lifetime of whiter, healthier- looking teeth for just $99 with Bright4Life. What is the Bright4Life program? Bright4Life members receive professional custom trays designed to evenly whiten their teeth. Members also receive professional strength whitening gel upon their initial visit and a complimentary touch-up kit at no cost when you keep your regularly scheduled hygiene appointments. Plus, Dr. Stuckey and our team work alongside patients until they are completely satisfied with the results.
splurging on the latest gear, consider what you have in your home. Use old kitchen utensils and plates, cleaning supplies, bedding, and entertainment items like books and toys in your RV to save money and clear some clutter from your home. It’s a win-win! Looking for more RV tips? Check out GanderOutdoors.com or download apps like AllStay, RV Parky, and State Lines. Happy trails!
You can hit the road without your bank account taking a hit with these three must-do tips!
Stay for Free If you’re on a cross-country adventure, you will need a place to park and rest each night before continuing your adventure the next day. Rather than shelling out money every night, consider free options. Search for public land that’s part of the Bureau of Land Management or in a Wildlife Management Area that allows overnight SMILE MORE WITH BRIGHT4LIFE
Results vary depending on the condition of your teeth, but most Bright4Life members enjoy a dramatically whiter smile in just seven days. Are there any side effects? The most common side effect of teeth whitening is gum and tooth sensitivity. While few of our patients experience sensitivity, Dr. Stuckey will make sure you are a good candidate for whitening and that you are using the right strength of whitening formula before starting treatment. Additionally, our Bright4Life whitening formula has built-in desensitizers to help decrease possible side effects. How long will the whitening results last? Results will depend on your diet and oral hygiene, but most patients enjoy a brighter smile for at least a year. Bright4Life members also receive a touch- up kit at their six-month hygiene appointment to help maintain their bright white smile. Bright4Life is an effective, stress-free whitening solution that helps keep your smile bright all year long. Join today by calling 419-866-6985 to make sure your smile is ready for all the graduation and wedding photographs this summer.
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Better Ways to Eat Chips — Courtesy of TikTok
dg Few things are more satisfying and exciting after a long day than the woosh and crackle as you’re opening a fresh bag of chips. Ah, salty bliss! Culinary legend says Americans have been eating potato chips since 1853, when the aptly named chef George Crum first popped slivered tubers into the fryer in Saratoga Springs, New York.
The Classy Dipper Are you frustrated by the lack of chip space you have left when you plop dip in the middle of your plate? @thelifebath on TikTok has the solution. Grab a martini glass and fill it with your dip of choice, then set it down in the middle of a bowl. Now when you add the chips, they can cover the base of the glass, stabilizing it and allowing for maximum chip storage. The Staleness Solution If you’re out of binder and bag clips, never fear — there’s a clip-free way to keep your half-eaten bags of chips fresh. @abrigail23 has mastered the art of folding her bags
In reality, the provenance of the chip is unknown, but Crum’s sister, Kate Wicks, may be the real genius behind it!
closed origami-style. To follow her lead, simply roll down the top of the bag, then fold both ends of the roll inward, tucking them under as you roll down another layer. Presto! Sealed chips. The Bag-to-Bowl Thanks to their tapered bottoms, most chip bags are inherently unstable. But if you don’t have a couch cushion to prop your bag against (or a bowl at hand), @kennamox has your back. Once you open your chips, push the bottom of the bag up from the center and fold the pointed corners in. Then, pinch around the edges to create a concave bottom. Now your chips will stand upright, no bowl needed!
(Read up on the controversy at ThoughtCo.com.) After all those decades of chip-eating, you may have thought we’d perfected the art, but it turns out the TikTok generation has a few hacks to improve the experience. Here are just a few new ways to eat chips, popularized by videos on the app. Don’t Miss Kids’ Day Have you heard about Kids’ Day? Once a month, Briarfield Dental Care throws a special celebration focused exclusively on our youngest patients. The office is transformed with fun decorations, and there are lots of prizes for kids who come in to join the fun. Plus, we have special spin brushes and offers on sealants and mouthguards only available during Kids’ Day.
Check out Buzzfeed.com or the TikTok app for more clever hacks.
A Multi-Genre Canadian Act With a Cult Following Dr. Stuckey’s Playlist
This month, I’m featuring a band I love partly because their sound is hard to define and their style is ever- changing. Current Swell is from Victoria, British Columbia, and they’re well-known in Canada (and also in South America). They’ve built their fanbase through word of mouth online, and it’s led to quite a lot of success for the group. Their sound is a combination of folk, rock, blues, reggae, and country. Some simplify it by calling them indie rockers, and others get more colorful and call them a surf rock band. Whatever they are, I love the variety of upbeat songs and albums they’ve produced since they started making music together in 2005. In fact, my favorite album is their second full-length album, “Trust Us Now.” I especially love the opening track on that one, which is called “Comin’ Home.” Other favorite tracks include “Bring Me Down” and “Rollin’” — both from earlier albums — and “High Life,” which is from their latest release in 2019. As spring turns to summer and elements of the pandemic continue to define our days, I’m appreciating the variety and energy that bands like Current Swell bring. Plus, they are the perfect summer soundtrack. If you’re looking for something to spice up your usual playlist, give Current Swell a listen.
May 20 Superhero Day June 17 Circus Day July 15 Superhero Day Aug. 19 Shark Day Sept. 16 Pirate Day
This month’s kid’s club winner is Katie! She won a Quip electric toothbrush and our office Kids Club T-shirt!
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Dr. Stuckey’s Most Memorable Road Trip
3 Tips for RVing on a Budget
Get Your Most Confident Smile Today
New, Better Ways to Eat Chips
Dr. Stuckey’s Playlist
Win a Zoo Membership!
Refer Your Friends and Family to Our Practice
And Win a Free Family Membership to the Toledo Zoo!
— and if you win our next referral contest, you and your family could see all of it for free for the next year! That’s right — the winner of our latest referral contest will win a family membership to the Toledo Zoo and Aquarium as well as the Experience Package. There is a lot of value between these combined packages that you don’t want to miss out on. The Family Zoo Membership includes free admission, free parking, admission to after-hours events, zoo-wide savings, and more. When you add the Experience Package to that, you also get unlimited rides, unlimited giraffe feeds, unlimited barnyard feeds, free Little Boo and Pumpkin Patch admission, and more.
County residents), and the Experience Package costs $99 on top of that! That’s over $200 worth of fun, educational activities for you and your family to enjoy if you win our referral contest! How do you win? If you want to enter our referral contest to win the Family Zoo Membership and Experience Package, get your friends and family interested in their oral health and refer them to Briarfield Dental Care. Any time a new patient gives us your name, it will be entered in the drawing for the prize. The more people you refer, the better your chances of winning the contest! Make your oral health a priority and help your friends and family do the same. The contest started on Feb. 1, and we’ll draw the name of the winner on June 30.
Who doesn’t love a trip to the zoo? You get to see potentially thousands
of animals you wouldn’t see anywhere else right in your own city. We’re lucky to have the Toledo Zoo, which boasts more than 10,000 individual animals, representing over 720 different species. You can see animals from all over the world when you visit
Normally, the Family Zoo Membership costs $116 for Lucas County residents ($124 for non-Lucas
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