PennSilverTaco's BS thread!

Beautiful view of what was once downtown Centralia from where I marked the guardrail...

 

My truck's A/C had to be evacuated and disassembled during the frame replacement last November, but it got pretty warm today and I am happy to say that Thompson Toyota did a good job of putting it back together again and getting it fully operational!

 

Screenshot of my location on the GPS when I was trying to find my way up to a church located just outside of Centralia Borough...

 

My truck and a dead deer; My theory was that hunters skinned the deer and left the remains behind, and my buddy concurred when I texted him pictures of the carcass to get his opinion...

 

My truck did surprisingly well off the beaten path, no doubt due to the 2" lift (more pictures later), though is what resulted in the minor boo-boo on the crossmember...

 

I was afraid of warping my new brake rotors (AGAIN; The first time, the manufacturer replaced them under warranty), so I didn't bother crossing this huge puddle...

 

Now begins the batch of pictures taken with my Nikon D5500!

 

The original "Graffiti Highway" was closed back in the spring of 2020, because people saw visiting Centralia as the perfect social distancing activity, and visited the highway by the hundreds; In an effort to force people to social distance, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania dumped large piles of dirt. In response, visitors to the ghost town created a "Graffiti Street"; Not as grand as the original, but still pretty cool in my opinion!

 

Hard to believe that my truck currently has about $3,000 in damage on the passenger side!

 

That silver Kia belongs to a couple of women who also took advantage of the beautiful weather to explore Centralia...

 

You would never believe that there once homes and businesses here, were it not for the presence of things like sidewalks and sewer grates!

 

Pretty sure this is a promotional sticker for a band...

 

View of what was once downtown Centralia from the new Graffiti Road...

 

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania started buying property from residents in the 1980s, and in 1993 eminent domain was declared, so it was no longer voluntary to leave. The remaining residents sued, and in 2013, they won. As of March 2022, I counted four rowhomes (two now standing alone and one building consisting of two separate residences), one single-family home, and a garage/repair shop of some sort that may be in use as a residence. I believe there are like half a dozen residents remaining as of the last census, and I have a feeling that by 2050 or so, more and more of the totally vacant side streets will look like this one; As you can see, it has completely grown over and is impassible to all standard-sized passenger vehicles. The underground fire started in May 1962, and I believe that by 2062, Centralia will have been totally vacant for years; The municipal building was built in 1978, and I wouldn't be surprised if it is demolished by then. By 2093, which will mark 100 years since the declaration of eminent domain (and by which time I'm pretty sure I won't be alive anymore, since I'll be approximately 104 years old if I am), and with the exception of Route 42 (which runs right through the center of town), I believe that all of Centralia will look similar to the picture below...

 

There were a lot of people out on 4-wheelers, dirtbikes, and side-by-sides...

 

A particularly striking view of the municipal building with the US flag flying...



The black line you see at the bottom of the picture is my stupid window that won't go down all the way because of the stupid pipe incident at the scrapyard almost a month ago...

 

I cannot wait until my truck is fixed!

 

There was still a decent amount of snow and ice (mostly combinations of the two) on the ground; This was despite the fact that it was almost 70°F there on Sunday (approximately 21°C if I've got any overseas readers) and there have been a few unseasonably warm days in the last couple weeks...

 

I had to rush back to Ashland to for an emergency bathroom break at a gas station, but I was ready to head back to Centralia in no time; This is the view from the top of the hill as one turns onto the stretch of road that goes into Centralia...

 

Right before you round the bend into Centralia, there is what appears to be an old garage on the left; More on that later...

There isn't much of a shoulder, so I risked getting stuck to get my truck off the road to keep it from getting hit (AGAIN); My truck performed incredibly on the mud path up to the garage!

 

It was a lot muddier than it looks in the picture...

 

At first, I thought this had been a single-family house that had been damaged when a tree fell on it or something; I believed that this was the basement level, that there had been some sort of accident after the premises was vacated, and that this was the result of two or three decades of nature reclaiming the property...

 

I quickly figured out that it was definitely a garage upon walking around the back. What I am trying to figure out is whether or not it was on a residential property, or if it was a commercial property that an independent mechanic operated out of; The presence of a Jiffy Lube-style "pit" points towards commercial property (we will get to that momentarily)...

 

There was literally no evidence of any other building on the property, though it is possible (but not likely) that was a drive-under garage in a house that obviously no longer exists (if it was a house)...

 

The presence of tires that look like they're from the 1970s and 1980s in an area that was declared eminent domain in about 1993 points towards a gas station; I don't know what's up with the fake "whitewall"...

From a distance, I thought this was a real whitewall tire!

 

It appears that there might have been another building of some sort here at some point, thoough these could be from the garage...