The Great Centralia MRE Cook-off

Today the Mac-Pac went on a ride of epic proportions. Twelve intrepid members thought that riding to Centralia and cooking MREs would be a good idea. Well, not really, but we did it anyway for Jack.

This is Jack, it was his idea. Actually it was research for an article Jack is going to write for the BMWMOA magazine. Blame him it was hit idea. We mostly met up at the good old Pottstown Family Diner. We ate breaklfast and then we departed for Hermy's BMW shop in Port Clinton. We met up with a couple of other guys and split into two groups. A "fast" group and a "slow" group. The fast group went through various killer backroads while the others toodled along Route 61. We arrived in Ashland, which is right next to Centralia at almost exactly the same time.

At a quick stop, May's Ice Cream, this gentleman ran inside and got a cone. He came out with this one as we were mounting up to go down the road. "How fast can you eat that." Beep beep zip dang!

This picture was taken in what used to be downtown Centralia. Across the street was a single skinny row house, all the others have been torn down. Centralia used to be a town of about 7,000 people. They accidentally set fire to the coal vein which runs underneath of the town. Slowly it has burnt since 1962. At times they attempted to put it out, now they just let it burn. Almost all of the people have left Centralia, but there are a couple left. After this we arrived at the Old Route 61, the one that is blocked off from access. All of the pics which follow were taken there.

Silly people thought that this little dirt hump could keep the Mac Pac off of old 61. They are fools. Chris J. lept this and did a backflip on his Honda ST. Most of us BMW folks simply wheelied over it at about 60 mph or so. Others went slow. anyway we all got over it and on to the old road.

Here is the biggest fissure in Old Route 61. This is why the road is closed. What you can not see are the little wisps of smoke. Temperatures in this fissure where taken as high as 170 degrees.

This is what heat from underneath can do to a road. Its kinda like where potholes come from.

After "cooking" the mashed potatoes in the MRE you could see the condensation on the bag. It really did get hot, but it was still gross.

Chris J. putting the bag in whilst Rick shoots the temperature.

Rich preparing his MRE.

Chris on Old 61

That is some serious road heave.

Jack an Chris eating like kings while getting a sauna.

Not Going Down this trip, thank you very much.

The bikes parked on Old Route 61. And a good time was had by all. On the way home Rich and I set sail on our lonesome because we could scoot a different direction back home. It was a lot quicker for us than the other guys. I was home about 4:30 in the afternoon. About 190 miles put on the clock.