PW Expedition
Yesterday was the trip.
I shall remember it well ... It started with 140 solid miles of fog, clearing up in time to see the last of Wisconsin, continued with some quality time at IKEA, ended with the Body exhibit at The Mall and 185 miles of dark (I recommend the exhibit to all, but the drive only to those who don't mind driving at night). There was some additional shopping in there, but more importantly, the purpose.
Yes, the Pioneer Woman herself was at The Mall yesterday. Brave woman -- I'm pretty sure the total signature line was no less than six hours long. (I wouldn't kid about something like that.) I'm not sure how many hundreds of people that was, but the crowd was huge.
I ended up in line with two other people there alone -- a woman buying books for her sisters (and, after waiting for a couple hours for the signing to start, bought one for herself) and the other a gentleman from Kentucky getting books signed for his daughters (and, after waiting fore a couple of hours for the signing to start, one for his wife). While our conversation wasn't necessarily deep or constant, we managed to be cheerful through the hours we spent together.
And hours and hours. My legs are still angry.
Anyway!
The wait was worth it. In addition to my companions (we became a designated "party" so that if any of us needed to leave the line we could have our spot back ... The Mall has very clear-cut rules for signings, which I have to admit were fantastic as well) there were some interesting moments.
- There were camera crews on the security guards
the whole time. Turned out they were filming for a TLC (?) special on mall cops. No joke.
- When we made it up to the fifth circle (about half an hour from the front), security suddenly cleared and cordoned off an area, including moving all of us over a few feet. Turned out there was an abandoned bag on a bench not fifteen feet from me that they had to have sniffed by a dog, checked by what looked like a portable Geiger counter, and then hand searched.
- It also turned out that said bag was a diaper bag. Belonging to a woman about fifteen spots behind me in line.
- There were undercover security guards lurking as well, originally pointed out by the kid in line behind our little party. After that it became a game to track down the undercovers. (One of them was quite good-looking, too!)
-Hands down, the cutest moment was much sooner, when this table got set up and occupied. For those who aren't the slightly crazed fans, this is Marlboro Man and the male punks, a.k.a. Pioneer Woman's husband and two little boys. They set this up right behind us. We just happened to be at that point in the line, just as we were later at just that point when they cleared the area for the scary diaper bag. PW's boys are 1) outrageously patient for their ages, and 2) adorable. After ducking away so as to not have my butt in the pictures of eighty strangers, I had to get a couple pictures of them myself. And then look over their shoulders, only to realize that the youngest was "autographing" books by drawing a mustache and horns on pictures of his brother.
All in all, even with the long wait (which, when it was over, didn't seem like it had been that long after all), it was a fantastic day. And far from the average Saturday.
I shall remember it well ... It started with 140 solid miles of fog, clearing up in time to see the last of Wisconsin, continued with some quality time at IKEA, ended with the Body exhibit at The Mall and 185 miles of dark (I recommend the exhibit to all, but the drive only to those who don't mind driving at night). There was some additional shopping in there, but more importantly, the purpose.Yes, the Pioneer Woman herself was at The Mall yesterday. Brave woman -- I'm pretty sure the total signature line was no less than six hours long. (I wouldn't kid about something like that.) I'm not sure how many hundreds of people that was, but the crowd was huge.
I ended up in line with two other people there alone -- a woman buying books for her sisters (and, after waiting for a couple hours for the signing to start, bought one for herself) and the other a gentleman from Kentucky getting books signed for his daughters (and, after waiting fore a couple of hours for the signing to start, one for his wife). While our conversation wasn't necessarily deep or constant, we managed to be cheerful through the hours we spent together.
And hours and hours. My legs are still angry.
Anyway!
The wait was worth it. In addition to my companions (we became a designated "party" so that if any of us needed to leave the line we could have our spot back ... The Mall has very clear-cut rules for signings, which I have to admit were fantastic as well) there were some interesting moments.
- There were camera crews on the security guards
the whole time. Turned out they were filming for a TLC (?) special on mall cops. No joke.- When we made it up to the fifth circle (about half an hour from the front), security suddenly cleared and cordoned off an area, including moving all of us over a few feet. Turned out there was an abandoned bag on a bench not fifteen feet from me that they had to have sniffed by a dog, checked by what looked like a portable Geiger counter, and then hand searched.
- It also turned out that said bag was a diaper bag. Belonging to a woman about fifteen spots behind me in line.
- There were undercover security guards lurking as well, originally pointed out by the kid in line behind our little party. After that it became a game to track down the undercovers. (One of them was quite good-looking, too!)
-Hands down, the cutest moment was much sooner, when this table got set up and occupied. For those who aren't the slightly crazed fans, this is Marlboro Man and the male punks, a.k.a. Pioneer Woman's husband and two little boys. They set this up right behind us. We just happened to be at that point in the line, just as we were later at just that point when they cleared the area for the scary diaper bag. PW's boys are 1) outrageously patient for their ages, and 2) adorable. After ducking away so as to not have my butt in the pictures of eighty strangers, I had to get a couple pictures of them myself. And then look over their shoulders, only to realize that the youngest was "autographing" books by drawing a mustache and horns on pictures of his brother.All in all, even with the long wait (which, when it was over, didn't seem like it had been that long after all), it was a fantastic day. And far from the average Saturday.
Comments