PW in PC

Pioneer Woman in Ponca City


When did you start reading the Pioneer Woman blog?

I started reading her blog in April of 2009. My dear friend, Mrs. C, had moved to Singapore and it was she that sent me a link to a PW recipe. How ironic! I'm state-side in Texas--I had no idea that the Pioneer Woman blog existed! So I became a faithful reader and started reading recipes and looking at photos and enjoying the tales of life in Oklahoma.

I could relate to life in the country in Oklahoma. I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma (population less than 200) and I enjoy the photos and info on country-living. The wide-open spaces. Cattle. Gardening. Canning.
Cooking with ingredients from Walmarts. Calf fries (I love calf fries). Photography. I enjoy my daily visits and reading her posts.

My current life is the oppostite of PW's. I'm a transplanted country girl in the suburbs of Dallas. (I can see my husband roll his eyes with that--he's 6'4" but when we had the possum in the yard, guess who removed it? I'm just saying....)

I love PW's new cookbook and was making plans to get it signed here in Dallas. Hmmm, book signing. There was a book signing in Ponca City, OK.

Look at the stats: Ponca City population - 26,000
DFW metroplex population - 6 million.
I thought Ponca City might have the shorter line. I made plans to go while I was in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving.

Bright and early (well, not that early) my mom and I hit the highway to Ponca City. Thanks to mom's deft driving skills (read: lead foot) we got to the book store before 10:00 a.m. Brace Books & More, anticipating a large crowd,decided to hand out numbers at 10:00. The parking lot was not filled to capacity. So far, so good!





We parked, went in, and stood in line. There were a few locals waiting for numbers and new friends from San Antonio and Wichita, KS. It was a pretty demure group!

I received number 22! Yes! I was pumped. Population stats of Ponca City (and surrounding areas) versus the Dallas numbers were working in my favor. Oh yeah!

So with number 22 in hand I did a little shopping at Brace Books, a very lovely place to shop. Local history books are an interest of mine. I like to read local history books covering the oil industry, cattle ranches, architecture, cowboys and cowgirls. Brace Books also carries fun gift items, decor, kitchen and a few toys. I just love book stores, so I had fun shopping. I now have a little Christmas reading with the purchase of The Filthy Thirteen.

But after shopping, mom and I had time to kill until the 1:00 book signing.

What to do in the city of Ponca City? Let's go visit the source of the Pioneer Woman's moniker The Pioneer Woman statue and museum!

Here's the entrance to the Pioneer Woman museum which is operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society. I worked for them in the 90's. That's a different blog entry.



The entrance was locked. There were no holiday hours posted but they were apparently closed for the Thanksgiving break. Bummer. But the statue was there for the photo-taking.





The Pioneer Woman was unveiled on April 22, 1930 and Will Rogers was there for the event. My mom told me that her mom had been to the unveiling. How interesting! I never knew that. It would have been interesting to hear Grandma's story of the event.

After the very short visit to the closed Pioneer Woman museum we drove the the Cann Memorial Garden. The flowers were on the way out but the garden was still very lovely.






We then drove thru the neigborhoods looking at the lovely, larger old homes. We then had lunch and shopped at The Walmarts. One o'clock was approaching. It was time for the book signing!

I had taken great care in preparing for this meeting.

Vintage silver jewelry, (purchased at the Rock show)



Cowboy (cowgirl) boots,



(Can you guess what kind of boots these are and what they are made of?)

And three cookbooks, one for me, one for Mrs. C and one for Mrs. D (check out their blogs -- links in the right column).



I was so excited! I've met authors before. I enjoy a good book signing. But I was really pumped!

PW made her entrance. The crowd was so polite. The lovely, elder Drummond daughter accompanied her mom. No MM or other family members.



(Please excuse blurry phone pic.)


"Hi, I'm from Oklahoma...."
"I live in the big city now..."
"Doh!"



I blabbed, I prattled, I gabbled. I got my books signed! PW was very gracious and charming (and very photogenic) Your hair is lovely.

Mom jumped in the photo.


And my book was signed after standing in line for 25 minutes. Thanks Pioneer Woman. Thanks Ponca City and Brace Books!



So now, books #2 and #3 will be making their way to Mrs. D (next door) and Mrs. C (now residing in Nanjing, China) as Christmas gifts.

Well-traveled books after their eventful trip to Ponca City, Oklahoma.

Later, as we driving home, discussing our adventure and meeting The Pioneer Woman (I still don't think mom knows exactly what a blog is), my mom turns to me and says, referring to PW, "She sure is a pretty girl..."