"Your Neighbor is WHO? Really??"

Have you ever met someone new and after talking to them for 15 minutes you were glad you had stumbled upon someone so interesting and fun to talk to?

That happened to me today.  While I was waiting to have a tire fixed in Arkansas City. 

Now for all the uninitiated, that's pronounced, AR-kansas, like the state Kansas with AR in front of it.  If you come down here and say AR-KAN-SAW City, everyone will know you're not from around here.

The real bomb was that Sue lives right next door to Ree Drummond, more commonly known as Pioneer Woman.   We all love her blog, don't we?!

(Ok, when I say she lives "right next door to her", you have to remember, this is the wide open prairie, where most people own a few hundred, heck, a few thousand acres!)

So they actually live about 15 miles apart, but their pasture land butts up together somewhere in Oklahoma.

Isn't that just the coolest thing?

But it really WAS cool talking to Sue.

Another cool thing I found out from talking to Sue - one of her sons quit his job in Dallas last year to do something he had always wanted to do, travel to every state in the U.S. 

Not only did he do this in his ole 1998 pick-up truck with a tent and a kayak, but he BLOGGED about it too.  You'll have to check out his blog, The Hitchhiker's Guide to America.  I checked it out real quick-like, and you just have to read his intro/bio.  So interesting, and he's funny in a rather dry way!

Sue lives in Grainola, which is northwest of Pawhuska, where Ree lives.  The town propers are about 47 miles apart but as the crow flies, the distance would be much shorter.  I'm guessing that Ree travels to Bartlesville to do most of her shopping, which is another 30 minutes (26 miles) east of Pawhuska.

Another side note:  The hubby's been to Pawhuska many a time in his past for his team roping events.  Just another reason I need to visit Pawhuska....

I have another blogger friend who lives in Bartlesville, Christina.  She started blogging her photos not too long after me, in 2009.

So I'm thinking I need to quit postponing my road trip to Pawhuska and Bartlesville.  Been wanting to do that road trip for about 2 years now!  I've heard Bartlesville is a really cute town.  I'll bet Christina could tell me lots about Bartlesville.

It's a 2 hour road trip to Bartlesville from here.  I'm ready to go -- who's in?

Who's ready to road trip with me?!  :-)