PENDLETON â The smell of roasting tri-tip and baby back ribs wafted from smokers across the parking lot outside of the Pendleton Convention Center, where the Willingham family chatted and laughed on an afternoon warm enough for T-shirts.
The lot was filled Saturday, May 1, with dozens of competitors, each looking to dish up the most delicious barbecue of the day, and the Willinghams had returned to reclaim their title.
âI like the atmosphere down here,â said Michael Willingham, a corrections officer at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution.
Until recently, Willingham said he would have shrugged off the idea of competing at the Buckaroo BBQ Challenge, which is part of the annual Pendleton Cattle Barons weekend event. With things changing every few weeks due to the pandemic, he was concerned that the event would be canceled and that all his effort, and his money, would go to waste. But standing beside his family â some of whom he hadnât seen since before t