On leaving Texas (and saying goodbye to my brother and sister-in-law, we headed for Oklahoma. We have been here before but went on a little different route to end up in the same place. Our day seven was a stopover was in Woodward. Then onto Pawhuska. Home of the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. I’m a big fan. And I really appreciate how her family has invested in their little community.
We were there in 2017 and were surprised at how the town (and the Pioneer Woman empire) has grown. In 2017, we stayed in Bartlesville, as there wasn’t an RV park within 30 miles of Pawhuska. While fun, it was a lot of time in the truck. Now we had our choice of several parks in the area. We chose The Lodge at Taylor Ranch. This big guy was in the field next door.
Funny story. When we called for reservations, we were told “This is a working ranch, so we may not be on site. Just pick any open site and we’ll catch up with you later.” I love small towns.
We visited The Mercantile. Its a combination of a general store that sells knick-knacks (I have no idea how you spell this word) gifts and clothing curated by the PW and her staff, a bakery/coffee shop upstairs and a restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Interestingly, both the coffee shop and restaurant just had a makeover. New hard and soft surfaces, light fixtures and color schemes. It was refreshing not to see the same old thing.
New to Pawhuska by the Pioneer Woman is Charlie’s Sweet Shop, P-Town Pizza, the PW Collection (which is where you can buy any of PW’s merchandise that she sells at Walmart) a Boarding House (an eight-room hotel) and an event space.
We had breakfast one day at the Merc and dinner at P-Town Pizza. It was pretty yummy! Anyone that knows me will be shocked that we skipped the sweet shop. I ran into the PW Collection shop but didn’t buy anything. I’m not much of a shopper by nature and I had received a set of her new Corelle dinnerware the previous Thanksgiving, so I didn’t drool too much.
We also went to the Ben Johnson Cowboy Museum. He is from Pawhuska originally. Who knew? I’m not sure if this is a newer attraction or if we just didn’t see it during our last visit. Lots of movie and other western memorabilia and a short history of his family and the settling of the area.
We also drove out to The Lodge, just to see if anything had changed.
We didn’t really see anything new, but they were giving away some PW overstocked blouses. I got two! I DO love small towns.
