Joey's Bar-B-Que Opened Friday March 26, 2010

Joey and Melissa Counts are bringing barbecue back to Wagener.  After many years of catering near and around their Springfield home, the Counts have succumbed to opening a restaurant.  Melissa will continue to work her full time week-day job, but Joey is going to focus all his attention on the restaurant.  Joey's Bar-B-Que features real pit-cooked pork, cooked 8 hours or more over an open flame and mixed with a secret barbeque sauce originating from Joey's uncle, O'neal "Bo Peep" Barr.  However, Mr. Barr has yet to confirm that.  When the recipe was credited to him, he backed up saying "Oh, no, no no no."  Modesty?  Or Paparazzi avoidance?  Bo Peep and I are going to sit on the front porch rockers, drink some sweet tea and have a chat.  I am going to charm the socks off him and get to the bottom of the secret recipe story.  I'm gonna get me a whole bunch of other stories while I'm at it, too.  Just me, Mr. Bo Peep, a front porch rocker and some of Joey's BBQ.  Big Plans, have I.

 

I swung by the restaurant on the day before they opened, mainly because I was drawn in by the yummy smells, but I also wanted to see how things were going.  The place was buzzing with excitement.  Everybody was worn just about plumb out, but was excited like kids on Christmas Eve; it was so much fun just to be there.  The Counts interviewed several people and ended up with 12 employees, a couple of which are high-schoolers.  These ladies were having a ball in the kitchen when I passed through; they were working on the sauce. 

Coffee Shop and Research Library Open in Wagener

Coffee Shop Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Pictured left to right:
Tim Skinner, Dave Heffron, Tyler Jones, Jimmy Jones, Ken Clark

A Wi-Fi Coffee Shop came to Wagener on a dreamy Spring day.  We'd all been waiting for it, some of us more impatiently than others, and about fifty of us turned out for the ribbon cutting ceremony.

"My life looked a lot like these old buildings before Jesus made a difference," began Jimmy Jones, President and Founder of Christ Central Ministries and Founder of Christ Central Institute.  Jones told how the initial plans called for housing the library on the main campus across town, but the downward economy prevented that from happening.  Then these run-down buildings became available and God seemed to lead the college in a different direction.  Jones compared his restored life in Christ to the restoration that was done with these buildings, adding that "a lot of people need the same encouragement, just as we worked with these buildings."  Christ Central walks the talk.  While their buildings are restored with top quality work, it is the broken lives of people that they are most interested in restoring. 

The ribbon cutting ceremony for Christ Central's Research Library and Expressions Coffee Shop began with a prayer by Pastor Leroy Dodson and introduction by President Ken Clark.  Clark explained the work that has been done in preparation for today's grand opening, years of going through the donated collections, cataloging 80,000 - 90,000 volumes and removing the duplicates.  Clark also mentioned that the upstairs has been furnished as a men's dorm for students and faculty.

Christ Central Library Coffee House to Open

Expressions Coffee Shop and Internet Cafe at Christ Central Institute's new Research Library will be open for business Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 8:30 am.  The library will be open 10 - 5 and the coffee shop will be open 8:30 am - 10 pm.  Join the coffee shop for a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday, March 18th at 11:30 a.m.  Tim Skinner will be the Library Director and Tyler Jones will be managing the coffee shop.  The Cafe and Library are located behind Kwik Karry, across from the Town Hall and Christ Central's Woman's Well.

Sandlapper SE&TRA Enduro Comes to Hollow Creek

Blue sky and Sunshine.  Nothin' but blue sky and sunshine..... and the roar of 300 motorcycles; it was a perfect day at the Sandlapper Enduro held for the 35th year at the Hollow Creek Fire Dept. and consisting of 300 riders, 2 of which were female.  This is the South's answer to "What do you do with those tall, tall pines?"

The 32-member Columbia Enduro ran this race to benefit the Ronald McDonald foundation and the Hollow Creek Fire Dept.  The race consisted of 60 trail miles spread out over 30 generous landowners, including Glenn Poole, who contributes in many ways to make this race possible.

Unusual in Wagener to see campers and trailers hauling dirt bikes instead of horses, but it was fun to see the increased activity and high levels of energy in our stores and restaurants.

The 300 entrants came from almost every state on the continental US, we spoke with two who were from Canada, and a handful of entrants were locals.  Most riders were en route to Daytona for the Alligator Enduro on Thursday (March 4) and using the Sandlapper as a warm-up.   

 

This was the beginning of the race, 60 trail miles, all off-road in pine forests with the average speed being 24 mph. 

The Columbia Enduro and Hollow Creek Fire Dept. want to shout out a big thank you to the Columbia chapter of the Christian Motorcyclists Association  for all their help with the race, specifically by doing all the road crossings and keeping the riders safe. 

 

Pages