The motorcycle trip to Pittsburgh started out hot and ended up wet, or at least the first half did. The weather changed from a high of 92 to a high of 62, and on the second day, the rain started to fall.

Centralia, PA is a place I’ve always wanted to go to, ever since reading about it in A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Back in 1962, there was a fire at a garbage dump, which ignited a vein of anthracite coal near the surface. While the people of Centralia thought the fire was extinguished, the coal actually continued to burn under the ground.

And that coal has been burning from 1962 until today. Yup, for the past FORTY-FOUR YEARS there has been a fire under the little town of Centralia. Here is a link explaining the Centralia mine fire in more detail.

Abi and I followed Route 42, which led to Centralia. The sky opened up several times, which was surprising since Stormbringer was home.

The road to Centralia was incredible, such a shame it was so wet. On one of the many twisty back roads, a suicidal chipmunk ran directly under my front wheel. POP! went the weasel. Abi said it almost looked like I ran over a tomato, it was pretty gross.

Centralia was interesting. The main road through the town has been diverted, thanks to a sudden ground collapse. At it’s height, Centralia had over 1000 full time residents. Now, about five residents remain in the town. Due to toxic gases seeping into basements, most of the houses have been knocked down. In November of 1983, instead of trying to fight the fire, the state relocated most residents and bought every house that remained at a cost of $42 million.

This is one of the smallest houses I have ever seen. It was one of a whole row of houses that relied on each other for support. This is the only house left standing, thus the brick chimney looking things on either side. I’m not sure if it is abandoned or not.

Down one of the many abandoned side streets, sulfurous smoke was rising from the ground. The ground felt hot to the touch, evidence that even today that fire is still burning. Worst case predictions are for the fire to burn for a hundred more years. Incredible.

Fortunately, the rain stopped while we were looking around, but it soon returned with a vengeance. I would have liked to look around more, but if we were going to have time to pay a visit to Phil, we had to get moving.

That’s right, there was no way I wasn’t going to stop off and visit my old buddy Phil. I felt it was only fitting to deliver his GFY award in person.

Both the rain and the temperature continued to fall. Everything got completely soaked. The last two hours of the ride were the wettest by far, but of course the rain stopped and the sun came out twenty minutes from the end of the ride. Perfect ending to the perfect day, soggy and shivering, blinded by the sun as the ride ended.

Thursday the ride home begins. Forecast: Rain.

Author: frenchy