WOODWARD, Okla. (AP) - When the middle-of-nowhere town of
Woodward, Okla., invited George W. Bush to its Fourth of July
celebration, no one really expected the former president to accept.
     
But he did.
     
Now the western Oklahoma town of 12,000 is rushing to prepare
for what some locals are calling the biggest thing ever to happen
to Woodward, a place where cattle outnumber people.
     
Bush's paid speaking engagement at Woodward's Let Freedom Ring
2009 celebration will be his first Fourth of July since he left the
Oval Office. It's also the latest in a series of small,
under-the-radar events that he has dropped in on as ex-president.
     
Most of the rooms at the half-dozen or so hotels around town are
booked. Woodward's 30-officer police force canceled vacations and
days off, and sheriff's deputies from the surrounding areas are
being called in.
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On the Net:
     
http://www.letfreedomring2009.com

     
     
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)
     
AP-NY-07-03-09 0736EDT