Hub City Farmer's Market Now Open Wednesdays

I'm on my lunch hour, so I'll make this quick.

The Hub City Farmer's Market is now opening on days other than Saturday, and in different places!

Wednesday, June 24th from 3-6pm Downtown on the Dunbar St. side of Morgan Square.

Thursday, June 25th from 3-6pm located at the Armory on Park St. (right off 176 in Inman.)

Starting today, the HCFM will be open on Wednesdays in Morgan Square through the last week in October. Apparently this is the third year they have done it; shows how much I pay attention. Starting for the first time ever, though, is the Inman location on Thursdays, open every week through September. I'm super excited about it. I mean, I've already been to the Saturday market 2 or 3 times and LOVE it, but being open from 8 to 12 one day of the week hurts them, in my opinion. I really hope that being open a couple more days out of the week with different hours in different locations will help draw more of a diverse group of people because it's more convenient. I hate that convenience is what a lot of it comes down to, but it truly is. This is America!

According to the HCFM website, they might also start having a market in Boiling Springs, which is where I live now.

I think I'm in heaven.

On that note, a couple of fine ladies in Spartanburg are also working their tails off to get a cooperative started. The Hub City Co-op had it's first meeting last night to lay down their vision, rally support, and answer questions. The facebook group has over 300 members, so I had no idea how many people would show up. Over 60 people showed! Steve Shanafelt from Spartanburg Spark was one of many in attendence, and posted a wonderful article earlier in the day after an interview with Ashley Campbell, founder. I strongly encourage you guys to read it! If you want any more information about the co-op and it's development, feel free to email Ashley Campbell and co-founder Angelina Shuman at hubcitycooperative@yahoo.com. They are currently working to get a Board of Directors together and are trying to get some grants to get the party started. They hope to be in operation by next Spring.

Keep an eye out here for more updates about the co-op. I have offered my blog as a billboard to these ladies because I am absolutely thrilled at the opportunities this would bring to our city.

Attention: Wild Wing Cafe is STILL closed.

Attention Spartanburg,

Wild Wing Cafe is still closed.

Sincerely,

Dani.

I have seen more people in the last couple of weeks try to eat at Wild Wings than I have in the past 6 months. Granted, mostly everyone knew the wing joint was closed for a while there, but now the problem seems to be that everyone thinks it's open already. It's not. I'm sorry. If I remember right, all the articles said July. Everything looks like it's going according to plan, so take a rain check on that 8 piece with ranch and a margarita.

That place is going to be PACKED when it first opens back up. I really miss my downtown apartment, but I am pretty sure I won't for the first few weeks that the Wing opens back up. Whew! I'd never get a wink of sleep. But, it does drastically reduce the amount of street drama I'll witness. I'm going to miss all of the drunken yelling and blue lights now.

I got hitched.

Yep, you're seeing right. I finally tied the knot. My bridal portraits took place in a few places, but I wanted to share these with you guys seeing as they were taken in Morgan Square.

I have a few things to share with you all; I'll post a few wedding photos in a day or two, and I also want to share some images of the Wild Wing renovation as seen from my office. They started painting outside on Friday and I snapped a shot. Maybe there will be some other developments for me to capture this week.

I also want to update everyone on RJ Rockers' move to the old Salvation Army building. They moved some equipment in a few weeks ago, and it is looking fantastic. If you read the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, I'm sure you've caught a few articles, but it's still really exciting for us to share the news.

As for today...I witnessed the strangest scene. For about 2 hours, a young fellow who looked to be around 20, was dancing and running around the sidewalk in front of my building today. Occasionally, he'd run down Church Street and disappear for a time, but he always came back to our sidewalk, yelling at other pedestrians and cars passing by. He was African American wearing a white t-shirt, blue workout pants, and socks; he had no shoes on. I have no idea what he was doing. I didn't open my window to hear what he was yelling (I was at work after all!), but it was quite entertaining to glance out the window and see him yelling for no reason. He didn't seem to be rallying for anything...Anyone have any idea what this kid was doing?

I started to take a picture, but didn't feel right randomly taking a picture of a stranger and plastering it on my blog. Maybe some of you can attest to what I saw if you passed by Morgan Square between 3 and 5 today.

Yet More News About Wild Wings...

...But it's good this time!

Apparently, if you all haven't heard in local news, a couple of investors have bought the Wild Wing Cafe building, and it will be opening back up in July.

News Channel 7 reports:

"Two local businessmen recently bought the building for $2.05 million dollars. One of the men, Bob Roe, tells us Wings Over America, Wild Wing Cafe’s parent company, has agreed to reopen the restaurant as a corporate location. Roe says his three sons will manage the restaurant, operating as a private company named Wings Over Spartanburg, Inc."

Awesome. From what I hear, the previous owners had owned another Wild Wing Cafe somewhere else and ruined it, too, so in this case, they were out of the game on two strikes.

There were a lot of men surveying the building on Tuesday, from the roof to the awnings on the front. Today, workers were moving tables around to start $500,000 worth of renovations before the place opens back up.

I also saw a couple of moving trucks this morning moving furniture out of the old Adeva Day Spa building. I wonder what that's all about. I think Belle Magazine was the only occupant in there, and they were on the third floor. I'll have to investigate. My company does own that building, after all. You'd think I'd know something by now.

In other news...I moved. I no longer live in the Palmetto Building overlooking Morgan Square. I know this is very sad news, but I do still work in that building on the third floor. As a few of you may know, I am getting married in NINE DAYS on May 16th. My fiance and I came upon a deal we could not refuse on renting a house where we made out better in the end and have a place to call our own after we say, "I do." Because of all of the wedding plans, I have neglected the blog, but don't give up on me! Until I move out of Spartanburg, I will never give up on The Scoop. I hope to be active a lot more after the wedding, so stick with me, Spartanburgians! (Is that what we call ourselves? Surely we can do better than that!) I actually had some of my bridal shots done in Morgan Square. After the wedding, I'll throw a few of them up here. I'd feel a little vain doing that, but it relates to the whole theme of my blog, right? =]

Snow in March?

Yes. It's March and it snowed. A lot. It. Is. Amazing.

In my last entry, I complained about the cold weather. But, if it snows, then I'll grit my teeth and bear through it. This snow is amazing. I cannot get over how beautiful it is. The first thing I did was record it on my webcam by the window and post a video blog about it. I mean, I know it snowed over a month ago, but nothing like this. And in March! It's breathtaking.

This morning, I had every intention of sleeping in. A lot. I already knew I didn't have to go into work this morning. But at 6:30, I awoke to tires screeching. Naturally, I got up, put on my glasses because contacts are too much effort, and looked outside. A Jeep was stuck in front of Wild Wings. Two tree service trucks were behind the car, and got out to try and help push, but alas, it was to no avail. She ended up abandoning her car after half an hour of tire smoke with no progress. I totally fixed her some hot chocolate, too, but she was gone by the time I got down to the road. I felt bad for her standing there. Every few minutes, I hear more screaching tires, and run to the window to see. I'm so nosy.

I am in the newspaper today. Well, I think they made a paper today. I was interviewed by Jason Spencer of the Spartanburg Herald Journal last night. My fiance and I went to play in the snow (see first picture...note the snowball fight wounds), and he came up to talk to me. I'll list the link at the end of the page. It's pretty exciting. I walked down to the street this morning to get a copy of the paper, but there were none in the dispensers, so I'm not even sure they delivered any.

I hope everyone stays safe in the weather. Just remember...if you are stuck around the Square, I'll see you!

Link to newspaper article: http://tinyurl.com/dloufr

February, February

I'm tired of this cold weather. I don't know about anyone else. I'm ready for it to warm up, and I'm ready to get married, and I'm ready to look good in a bikini again. I'm ready for a lot of things.

I hope everyone has had a good month so far, especially on Valentine's Day. I'd have to say that Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday. What's better than spending all day cuddled up with the person you love most in this world? I cooked dinner for my fiance Friday night (with candles lit and everything), he brought me flowers and drew me a comic, and we spent all day Saturday watching movies and playing Nintendo. I don't think we ever left the apartment. It was a gloriously lazy day, listening to the bustling traffic of Spartanburg racing by my windows.

There hasn't been a whole lot going on around the square in this cold weather. I saw some people dressed up as soldiers from the Civil War crowded around the Daniel Morgan statue, but I'm not really sure what that was all about. It was kind of funny watching them stick their bayonets and spiffy hats in their trucks, BMWs, and vans before climbing in and driving off.

Not much news on Wind Wings either. I had to walk down to Carolina Galleries to pick up something my company had framed, and noticed that a piece of paper had been posted on their door. I forget what it was called...not an eviction notice...some other e-word. It basically said that the owners had 5 days to respond, and after that 5th day, their stuff could be thrown out on the street to vacate the property. Lots of words were in the document, like lawsuit, defendant, lawyer...can't be good news. Within a day or two, however, the notice was gone, so I guess SOMEONE is checking on the property.

Hopefully someone will get that bad boy open. I don't care how bad the economy is, people are still spending on wings and booze, and they need somewhere to spend their money. It saddens me to look out the window and see Wild Wings closed, Abby's closed, Adeva Day Spa closed...and there are a few officy-looking places that need some owners, too. Downtown isn't supposed to be this empty.

January, January

Hello everyone.

I apologize for being MIA for nearly a month. I'm battling a cold at the moment, and the holiday season really took it out of me emotionally.

But, one of my New Years Resolutions is to post in all my blogs at least once a week. I've succeeded with the others since I've had things to rant about, but I am just now really having the motivation to sit down at my laptop to update this one. Nothing personal.

For this entry, I want to rant about something that has bothered me for a while.

The bell tower no longer chimes!

When I first moved into this apartment, I admit, the bell tower was a tad annoying. But, once I got used to sleeping above a pretty busy street, I learned to love the hourly alerts. I remember when the time changed months ago, it took the city forever to finally adjust the clock on the bell tower. I think it was then that they stopped the tower from ringing on every hour. This saddens me, because at least once a day I look out at it and wonder where the music is. It may not mean a lot to most people, but being a part of the Square now, it means a lot to me. If anyone knows why is isn't singing each hour, please let me know. Otherwise, I may need to get off my lazy tail and start investigating!

Don't worry. I won't vanish for another month. I have plenty of things to address. =]

Oh, and to have something more time relevant here, below are some pictures that I took yesterday morning when it snowed. Enjoy!