Visiting the Pioneer Woman's town - Pawhuska, Oklahoma

Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman, hosts her own half-hour cooking show on the Food Network every week. She grew up as city girl, met and fell in love with a cowboy, married him and moved to the third largest ranch in the US - which just happens to be in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. She started a blog - which I have followed for years but for me it was about her photography (which is displayed all over the Merc) - to keep her family updated on her life and her four kids. Since she lived so far from civilization, she started making everything from scratch. She also started posting recipes and the blog took off and segued into her cooking show. She has written at least 5 cookbooks and 10 children's books about her ranch dog, Charlie. In 2010, she was listed by Forbes as one of it's Top 25 Web Personalities - and only four were women. Her star has been on the rise in the US - you may have seen her being interviewed on morning news shows or on the cover of People magazine recently - and to strike while the iron is hot, and benefit her small town of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, she and her family renovated an old building and turned it into The Merc - short for Mercantile- which houses a restaurant, bakery and store.

My sister is quite the fangirl of Ree - she never misses her show - and has wanted to visit The Merc since it opened. She had two weeks available for vacation at the beginning of July - and only those two weeks - so we planned a road trip to Pawhuska for the ultimate fangirl experience. Unfortunately, as it is with travel sometimes, we hit a few stumbling blocks which cut our travel time down to about 5 days but we decided we would still do it as this was the only time she had. So come along to Pawhuska, Oklahoma - home of Ree Drummond and the Drummond Clan.

Our road trip was long - we made a brief stop in Branson, Missouri on the way there - and we arrived to our hotel in Bartlesville, Oklahoma late in the afternoon. We got the lay of the land of Bartlesville - famous for two things: it' s world headquarters of Phillips Petroleum and it's home to the only skyscraper designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Ever. Price Tower is 19 stories high and was built in 1956. Now a hotel - the Price Tower - you can also tour the building 5 days per week for $15 per person. Unfortunately, I wasn't there at the right time so I was only able to see the exterior. And with that we headed to our hotel to get at it early the next day.

People come from far and wide to visit The Merc so we knew we would encounter long lines. We arrived around 10 in the morning and jumped into line for lunch at the restaurant. There was an awning to provide shade for those in line and employees came out delivering water and popsicles for those waiting. We mingled with several people in line - some from Oklahoma, some from Kansas - who were all happy to be visiting The Merc. One woman was celebrating her 40th birthday there. Some had driven quite a ways like us - one had driven from Canada!  If you don't want to wait, you can get in the "food-to-go" line or grab something from the bakery. In all, our wait was about 2 hours - which is crazy! - and we were finally ushered inside for lunch. The Merc is housed in a building from the turn of the century and it has been tastefully redone while still retaining it's charm. The theme is western country - Ree is known for her collection of cowboy boots - and the wait staff wear gingham shirts and jeans. My mom ordered her famous Pioneer Woman lasagna, my sister went with a club sandwich with homemade chips and I got the homemade mac-n-cheese (saving room for pecan pie for dessert) All were deemed delicious. We then strolled around the store - I didn't buy anything - and headed upstairs to the bakery and sitting area. We were told that Ree would be there in the afternoon to sign some of her cookbooks and mingle. But we were quite disappointed to find out later that she was at home filming that week. I think some member of the Drummond family can be seen at The Merc a good percentage of the time, though, if you'd like to meet some of them.

There isn't a lot to do in Pawhuska other than the Merc. There is an Osage Nation Museum and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve which we weren't able to visit - the former was closed and the latter looked to be a bit too much time in the car for us. We did walk around Pawhuska and window shop a bit. Oh, and there's a small casino run by the Osage Nation - but we didn't partake of that either.

It was a full day - and I enjoyed it very much. Would I stand in line two hours for lunch again? I don't think so. Nor would I drive the million hours to visit again. Once was enough I think. But I've heard that the Drummond family is renovating a building across the street to become a hotel so who knows? Maybe we'll have to visit. Never say Never!

Can you spot the bird building it's nest?!

How about you? Have you ever been on a long road trip - only to stay for a short while?


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This post is part of a link-up with: Travel Photo Thursday at Budget Travelers Sandbox and The Weekend Wanderlust Travel Blog Party!