A Trip to See the Pioneer Woman

Well, it was a trip here: 

Yes, that's the famous "Mercantile", the "Merc".  

The Drummonds, (Ree and Ladd, or "Marlboro Man") opened the 

Mercantile in downtown Pawhuska, OK on October 31, 2016. 

I went with Stella Rose Long's Mommy, Deb, with whom I traveled last 

summer to the BAR, and her sister and niece.  Flea, Deb's friend (and 

now mine) came to visit us on Saturday. 

Even though it was Friday afternoon by the time we walked in, there were no lines, and 

we were told fifty times in two days that it was a miracle, because they are usually "yayyy" long, as we say here. 

Friday afternoon, the second floor of the Merc was almost deserted, as you see here.  There is a place for weary people to sit and behind me was a large room with tables, and the bakery. 

Flea told us she had never seen it empty. 

There are, in fact, porta potties staged along the main street, because 

of the crowds. 

Our friend Flea lives in Tulsa, and had been over to 

Pawhuska four times, and told us that the last time 

she went, a few weeks ago... there was a 3 1/2 hour wait to eat. 

We were living right, because we walked back over on Friday evening, and 

walked in and were seated immediately!  

I need to warn you that the portions are huge. 

The front of the menu. 

I foolishly ordered chips and queso dip, and could not take it, it 

was huge and I had to send it back. 

When they say "hearty", they mean it!  

We had a good dinner, and had eaten earlier at Grill 125, I tell you this 

because there are few places to eat in the downtown area. 

Here let me make a statement.  

Downtown Pawhuska is depressed, just like every other downtown of 

every rural town in the heartland.  

In about a year or two, it is going to be ROARING. 

The triangle-shaped building across from the Merc is gutted and 

being worked on, and several nice boutiques were open 

along Kihekah. 

There are many, many closed storefronts, but... there are also a number being 

refurbished right now.  

There are some flea markets open, and yes, we flea'd. 

We stayed here: 

I took that about 8 PM, between the raindrops, because it stormed ALL WEEKEND. 

The Whiting Bed and Bath Hotel was actually about 26 units that were rented to oil field workers as efficiency apartments.   They had a bed-sit, small kitchen, bathroom, and storage room. 

When the Merc was going to open, the Easley's, the owners, were asked to provide some hotel rooms for prospective visitors.  

The two end units are overnight rentals now, with six units in each. 

The rooms have themes, and ours was "The American Room". 

The cupboard was stocked with coffee. 

There was a small refrigerator, and a small stove. 

(apartment size) 

You MUST request a room with a shower if you want one, because some do not have them. 

Also... you must go up 23 steps from the street level to get to your rooms. 

The steps are narrow, and hard to go up and down.  People who have trouble walking 

and people with handicaps should probably not stay there.  Access is from the rear, up an unpaved driveway into narrow parking.  

You must cross this little bridge to get to your rooms. 

However... this is the only place to stay within walking distance. 

There are several bed and breakfasts... they are farther up the bluff from here, and you would have to drive back and forth.  Because the bluff, she is high. 

That's the county courthouse way up there. 

Closest nice hotel rooms (and I am NOT knocking the Whiting, because we loved being able to walk back and forth) are in Tulsa and Bartlesville.  

There are boutiques along Kihekah. 

This was one of the nicer ones. 

Many are still in the process of being constructed. 

Grill 125, where we ate lunch around the corner from the Merc entrance. The food was good. 

Huge order of chip and dip!  

More tomorrow, I realize I have a lot more pictures! 

On the Soapbox Again

At my office, there are distributed copies of USA Today on a daily basis.  Though I have subscribed to the Kansas City Star for 40 years, Keith reads it in the morning with his coffee, and I look at USA while I eat lunch, so it has become "my" paper.
One of the headlines today was that there was a 3.9% hike in food prices last month.

I ask you how poor people are to eat?  In a nation as rich as ours, how on earth are parents and old folks and singles out on their own to stretch their food dollars? I grew up in a stable neighborhood, with two parents, two brothers and a little sister.  It was not uncommon that we had six or eight porkchops or other pieces of meat on the table each night for dinner.  Having hamburgers was a treat... that wasn't considered a "real" dinner.  Now, members of my own extended family, including one of those older brothers, are on foodstamps.  One of my grandchildren gets free breakfast and lunch at school, his mom has been unemployed over a year and her benefits have long run out.

Shame on us for not doing more to make food more equitably distributed in this great nation of ours. 

Calamity Acres is trying to do it's part... our eggs, with the exception of some going for personal use, and some to my brother, go to our local food kitchen.  Yes, there is a great need for the other food donated, and the protein-rich eggs.  I wish we could all do a little of this, to help those still in need.

We remember tonight, also, the poor people of Japan who are dealing with so much grief and destruction still.  It will be years before their lives are back to normal. 

We pray for the people in the Mideast, whose lives are in constant danger and uproar. 

We hope that gas prices come down, so food prices will, too, eventually, and people can get to the jobs that they have. 

We pledge that this year, we will save as much of nature's bounty from our garden as we can, to share with family and friends, and to feed ourselves without waste.

We hope and pray that the good people of our nation can find jobs that show them respect and pay them a living wage, and that they are able to provide for themselves and their families with the money they earn by their honest day's work.

My own prayer is that I learn as much as I can weekly from those of you reading and writing these wonderful blogs on the web about gardening, about raising animals for food, about saving the harvest, and about getting along in this wonderful nation of ours. 
I thank all of you, again, for your comments and suggestions.  I read your blogs with wonder and amazement and feel akin to all of you.  I know you are the people who stop your car to move a turtle across a road, and thrill to the cries of the geese overhead. 
Thank you!

Ranger thanks you, too!