When optometrists Dr. Ross Cusic and Dr. Troy Bailey first met, Bailey decided that he did not wish to purchase Cusic’s Enterprise business. Bailey had vacationed in Wallowa County with his family, liked the area, but had a business of his own in Kirkland, Wash., that he needed to sell before going on a one- to five-year mission trip to South America.

When Bailey’s sale of his practice fell through nine days before he was scheduled to leave for South America, after selling his house and living out of boxes, he was not sure what to do, so listed his business on the Internet.

Cusic saw the listing and, to make a long story short, the two optometrists have traded practices. Not straight across because the Kirkland business was 25 percent larger than the Enterprise office, but equitably.

Following the five-year stay of Dr. Ross Cusic at the Winding Waters Eye Clinic, Bailey is in just his second week at the practice and feeling totally at home. “It is very pleasant the way the optometry staff, the doctors and nurses, and the nurse practitioners have all made me feel welcome.”

Raised the son of a professional rodeo cowboy in Oklahoma, Bailey was in 13 different schools before he graduated from high school. He attended Loma Linda’s La Sierra collegiate campus in California for two years before forming his own construction business. At age 28 he decided to get into the business of truly helping people and, after getting his prerequisites out of the way at Walla Walla Community College, attended Pacific University in Forest Grove from where he graduated with a doctorate of optometry in 1995.

Bailey spent one year practicing at East Wenatchee and seven years in Kirkland before making the trade with Cusic.

He and wife Janice have purchased a home on Old Ski Run Road in rural Joseph. They have two home schooled daughters, ages 12 and 9. Janice, though now working at home, is a registered nurse.

After six to eight months of living out of boxes, Dr. Troy Bailey is glad to be home.