This dentist’s tastes run from Harleys to alpacas

It was on a trip with her husband, Monte, to see Mount Rushmore in South Dakota that Carol Ysidro discovered a new passion in her life. Coincidentally, the Ysidros had scheduled their trip at the same time as the infamous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. “We decided to go into town to see what all the excitement was about,” she recalls. That’s when the motorcycle bug first bit them.

Five years later, Carol and Monte are seasoned riders. She owns a Harley Soft Tail Deluxe and he rides a Harley Road King. “Every year we pick a destination and just go,” Carol says. “This year it was Pike’s Peak. We’ll pack whatever we can get into a little duffel bag and just go.”

When she’s not on her Harley, Carol is a dentist with her own practice in Derby. She oversees a team of eight that includes another dentist, Omar Barakeh, and her husband, who is her office manager. Her modern office has floor-to-ceiling windows along the north wall so that patients can look out on a wooded area with a pond and feeding stations for whatever wildlife comes by. It’s not uncommon to see raccoons, deer, even an occasional skunk or wild turkey.

Animals are another passion for Carol Ysidro. She and Monte have an Australian shepherd named Mattie, a cat they call Kitty, and three alpacas roaming around in the back yard.

Carol and Monte have lived in Derby for 26 years and love the community. She serves on the board of the Derby Educational Foundation, which raises money for innovative programs in the Derby public school system. “Derby is growing so fast,” she says. “We have practically everything we need right here.”