I still very much enjoy the full practice of family medicine with OB going on 34 years now in St. George, Utah. This is Red Rock country 2 hrs from Las Vegas and from the Grand Canyon and other national parks. It has been a booming growth area, especially for retirees, in part due to the warm climate. When we moved here there were 2 stop lights and I was the 37th physician and now the hospital staff has grown to closer to 300, including all specialties, a regional level II trauma center and some of the best rated quality programs in the country. The area is losing some of it small town flavor now, but has been a wonderful place to raise our family and develop long term relationships with my patients. I have enjoyed delivering babies (including C/S privileges and US for which I credit my training) and then taking care of the kids growing up. I have done many second-generation deliveries now. My OB practice has been slowing down but my geriatric population has grown with the local boom and I also enjoy my elderly patients more than in the past (for the past year I have been a hospice medical director for Encompass). Early on I was part of 3-4-man FP group that has grown to now 10 docs and 3 extenders making call a lot easier especially since relinquishing inpatient adult care to hospitalists a few years ago. About 10 years ago our FP group joined Revere Health which was just named the top savings Next Gen ACO in the country, 39% higher than the next closest one, and we have been paid well for it from Medicare and others.
While I have always preferred and practiced full time, I have also been involved at other levels including President of the Utah Medical Association (ran into some Waco Docs at AMA meetings), Vice-Chairman of the Utah Health Information Network, and President of the Utah Medical Association Financial Services subsidiary. I have been on the clinical faculty of the University of Utah Medical School for many years and 3 of my partners have been former students.
My wife Katherine (Kate) and I have 3 children including one born there in Waco and 3 grandchildren who we can't get enough of. I fortunately have been relatively healthy (only missed 2 half days of work due to illness or injury in 34 years) and I enjoy all the local mountain bike trails and lake activities. Kate however, has not been so fortunate with many surgeries and chronic pain issues, compounded the last few years by CVID for which I help her get biweekly infusions. Despite this we do get away from time to time and have often thought about coming back to visit Waco and are excited to come for the planned reunion. Hope to see you all there!

I think his name was Cecil Edwards, the older seasoned internist (I think from Louisiana) on staff for the residency but one morning we were discussing as a group some experiences moon-lighting in some of the smaller Texas towns in the area where we were the only MD available for emergencies. We discussed if some major incident occurred where the only hope of saving someones life was to "crack their chest" would that be something we should consider? His answer in a great southern drawl, "I have always felt that if something bad was going to happen, it is better to have it happen somewhere else." (In-other-words, ship them out ASAP)
:-)