PIONEER WOMAN’S (REE DRUMMOND) MERCANTILE, PAWHUSKA, OK

Did I mention I have a wonderful husband?  He indulges me my whims a lot.  When I saw that they were allowing free tours of the lodge where they film the Pioneer Woman cooking program and mentioned I would like to do it he offered to take me for my birthday in the first week of January.

He only winced a small bit when I reminded him that the lines to get into the restaurant were often five hours long and wound around the block outside in the bitter cold. Told you he is a wonderful husband.

We took the two hour drive from our campground to the small town of Pawhuska, OK early on a very cold morning.  It had been below zero the night before.  Since we had been warned about the long lines we both dressed warmly.

We arrived for an early lunch and were surprised to see the line was fairly short.  Maybe 20 people crowded around the free standing heaters on the sidewalk, thoughtfully provided by the Drummonds, waiting to get into the queue inside to be seated at a table.

I am told they give out infused ice water and have fans stationed down the side walk in hot weather.  Nice.

To our amazement we were inside in less than 15 minutes and seated within an additional 15 minutes.  I guess the bitter cold kept a lot of folks away.

During our wait we chatted with the hostesses who told us that despite how cold it had been during the week before they had people actually stand in line for EIGHT hours outside. 

While I am a fan, I am not that big of fan.  In fact if the queue had been very long when we arrived I would have picked up my free tour ticket and left.  Gary and I simply don’t do lines if we can avoid it.  We have too much to see and do in this world to stand in long lines.

We were told that Ladd and Ree had tried to buy a nearby building to turn into a hotel with a second restaurant in it as well as the Mercantile one, but the owner was set on turning it into apartments. 

They have been checking out other buildings as well.  They have done a lot for the town economy, that is for certain.

Standing in the indoor queue we couldn’t resist snapping photos of the deli and the restaurant tables beyond.

Once we were seated our service was quick, friendly and attentive without being overly so.  The food, delicious just as you would think, with generous portions.  Judge for yourself on the portion size by the photos below.

While eating our meal I was surprised to see Ladd Drummond walking around and personally handing out the free tickets to the tour.  A server brought us our ticket, shucks.

Ladies, he is more handsome in life than he is on the show.  He was laughing and teasing several of the restaurant guests as he walked through.  Unfortunately we did not see Ree that day.  Oh well I got to see her at a book signing in Tulsa a couple of years ago. 

After we finished our meal the server bagged up the half of sandwich and chips I hadn’t even touched because I filled up quickly on the “Marlboro Man Sandwich” and we went into the actual Mercantile part of the building.

Fun, fun, fun things to look at and buy if you are so inclined.  Everything from old time candy and toys to her exclusive kitchenware.  Most of which you will never see at Wal-Mart.

Love the blouses and jewelry she wears.  The Mercantile carries them.  Buying an item as a gift?  They’ll gift wrap it for you.  It was a fun place to look through, but not very shoestring budget.  But then I didn’t expect it to be.

Other than our meal my sole purchase was a brag rag, my term for a branded piece of clothing.  After all who wouldn’t want to brag they have been to the Mercantile?  

Btw, it was reasonably priced and is so soft and comfy I wear it often. Not to mention it was packaged in this lovely gift bag.

The ticket for the tour also included a turn by turn explanation on how to get to the lodge, complete with landmarks to warn you when to turn.  That’s the way we Okies give instructions, mileage AND landmarks.

It was further out of town than we expected, but not too far. We passed a pasture with these beautiful horses in it as we traveled the last bit.  We were later told these are wild horses that the Drummonds had “adopted”. 

It is back off the highway a bit and larger than we expected. 

We also figured out quickly that the camera crew is very good at their job.  Because Cowboy Josh’s place is just below the lodge at the base of their driveway and there are other worker homes in the area, none of which you see when they are showing shots outside of the lodge.

The roping dummy is right off the porch instead of out in a large open area like the show leads you to believe.  As is Ladd’s grill.  There isn’t really a lot of parking either.

Another thing we learned from Ree’s assistant was at the lodge when we were there is the “house” is actually a decent distance away and not fancy at all.  It is Ladd’s boyhood home.

As you enter the front door one of the first things you see is the pantry they often show Ree gathering food in.  We should all have a pantry like that! It is long and narrow and fully stocked just as they show on tv.

The large kitchen area is to the right.

 A seating area is to the left of the door.  We were greeted by Cowboy Josh’s Dog as we entered.  He had free run of the house along with a few of the family dogs.  Sadly no Charlie who died shortly after we were there.

There is a large family area with a double face fireplace just past the kitchen.  It is all pretty much and open floor plan.

We learned a lot about the show and the behind the scenes action that was going on during a filming.  Here are a few tidbits we learned.

While Ree does create and use the recipes regularly during the show there are actually several people creating the exact same dish in, at that time five mobile kitchens in semi trailers (more on this in a bit).  They use the best looking dish for filming.  Then afterwards they have a crew that cleans up, after everyone eats.

They film several episodes at a time because bringing the mobile kitchens in is a little tough.

The lodge is used mainly as a guest house and did not originally belong to the Drummond family. 

There are at least three cook stations in the HUGE kitchen, but you can tell that yourself by our photos.

Now about the mobile kitchens.  Like I mentioned bringing semis in on the dirt roads to the Drummond lodge is a bit difficult, so the lodge was under construction while we were there. 

Guest rooms, another large pantry, a huge commercial kitchen and bathrooms were being added for the film crew to use when they were filming. You access this area by going down a hallway just off the family area. 

The photos pretty much tell it all. 

It was definitely worth the drive out to get a better idea how the show is put together.  Very interesting, and educational.

Oh, for you fans.  This was not a one time only chance to visit the lodge for free.  They apparently do it periodically between filming.  I know they had free lodge visits available in early June of 2017 as well.  The information appears on the website for the Mercantile when the tours are available. 

BACK TO TULSA RV RANCH, BEGGS, OK—Camp 29

As we left Kilgore, TX Murphy jumped in the back seat of the truck and decided it was time to create another little bit of mischief.  It was a trailer tire going flat this time.  

Luckily the tire minder warned us and we were able to pull over before it blew.

Once again it was on the drivers side, and this time we were on a fairly narrow stretch of highway.  

A call to AAA got us help in due time, but this time we had to use Gary’s card because Murphy had maxed mine out for the year.  We really need to get rid of that hitch hiker.

We had planned on going on in to Tulsa RV Ranch that night, but with the delay of the flat we pulled into the Choctaw Travel Plaza and Casino near Hugo, OK to boondock. 

It was Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and we were pretty certain we would have to wait until Monday until we could get a trailer tire.

Instead of even trying to find one that late in the evening on a Sunday of a holiday weekend I called my long time friend and fellow rendezvouer Linda Lou Alexander, who lives near where we were camped for the night.  

I have mentioned Linda Lou in another post, one that is a true story of the events at one rendezvous.  You can read “Be Careful What You Ask for” by clicking the hyperlink to refresh your memory.

Besides being a good friend she is also an excellent basket maker.  So of course I have written a review of her baskets, complete with some photos on my “Outside a Dog” blog as well.

Linda Lou came right over that night to chat with us for a while and then again bright and early the next morning to take us looking for a tire so we wouldn’t have to unhook the truck from the trailer. She knew just where to take us.

She also took us to look at various campgrounds in the area.  Many were beautiful, the prettiest one of all, one we had previously considered for camping instead of the Truck Plaza.  We had decided against it at the last minute because we hate arriving in campgrounds after dark.

We definitely made the right choice.  The campground was fairly full and would have been a very tight fit to work our fifth wheel into any of the available spots .

If we hadn’t already been late getting back to Tulsa we would have stayed another day or so to visit a few things in the area like the circusperformer cemetery at Hugo, OK Linda Lou mentioned to us just before dark.  We definitely have it on our list to go back and see.

I have already written about the Tulsa RV Ranch on our previous visits, not too much had changed except we noticed that they were paving the rodeo arena and had signs up that they were instead installing a Pick ‘n Pay auto parts place, read salvage yard.  We were not amused. 

They were paving part of the roads in the park, so that was a good thing.

Neither were we amused that the campsite we were given was not the one we had requested months earlier and it was heavily littered with dog poo.  Before we could complain to management about the dog poo another camper arrived to camp next to us with her two dogs and immediately cleaned both our campsites with her handy pooper scooper because she didn’t want her dogs in another dogs droppings.  Thank you kind lady.

We love dogs, but ours do not travel with us.  They are farm dogs that are happy having the right to run free on our 90 acres.  They would not be happy on a 6 ft leash for certain. Therefore we do not want to clean up after other campers’ dogs. Not to mention our labs are a little big to haul the two of them with us, as you can see.

We paid the monthly rate plus a one week rate to stay this time because we were home for Thanksgiving, our son’s birthday, Christmas, and into January as well as the usual doctor’s appointments.

Oklahoma seldom has below zero temperatures.  We are native Tulsan’s and we were banking on the normal temperatures while we were there.  More than one Christmas I have worn shorts on Christmas Day. 

Boy did we get a surprise. We suffered through several below zero night time temps and nearly 10 days of frozen pipes despite having heat tape on our heavily insulated water hose and insulating the faucet at the campground.  So much for that spigot being frost proof.  Not to mention our Montana has the arctic package on it.

Luckily we did not get any burst pipes, other campers were not as lucky, nor was the campground.

A main line burst and the water, after the repair, the rest of our stay was very brown, most likely we thought, from dirt in the lines.  We did not cook with or drink it and it did stain our toilet.  Again, not amused, but burst pipes happen.

The holidays were fun with our son and I particularly enjoyed my birthday gift from my husband.  He took me to Ree Drummond’s, aka: the Pioneer Woman Mercantile.   I love watching her show when I can. I use many of her recipes, especially her Hot Crash Hot Potatoes and FriedPork Chops.

They even had a special event going on that if you went by the Mercantile you would get a free ticket to tour their lodge for free.  For those of you who don’t watch her show the lodge is where they film most of it.  The lodge was huge I will post photos of it and the restaurant in a separate post.

By the way, to show you how splendid of a gift this was the lines were known to be FIVE HOURS LONG to get just inside the restaurant, mainly outside and remember the temps were below freezing during the day and below zero at night.  Yet my wonderful husband was willing to endure it for me. 

Then there was of course all our pets to love on the two dogs pictured above and our three cats.  The grey one, Gypsy, traveled with us as a kitten, but she has made it very clear she has no intention of going on the road with us again. 

She prefers to stay home with Oliver, the black cat that was missing for two months in the summer last year, to battle the calico, Lizzie.

All five animals were glad to see us, but made it clear they were now Sean’s animals and had no desire to travel with us.

To make up for the cold was the great health news both Gary and I received.  We are both in excellent health and the doctors now only need to see me every six months instead of every six weeks or so.  YES!  Freedom to travel further was a great Christmas gift.