Anthracite

Daily writing prompt
Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.

Coal was king in this neck of the woods. It isn’t anymore, but there are still a few spots that serve as reminders of those bygone days. One of them is Centralia, where an underground coal fire has been burning since the early 60s. There’s not much to see there, as one drives on SR 61, and just a handful of people still live there, down from its bustling days of 2700 or so. A trip through that area must be a sort of haunting pilgrimage through a ghost town– nature has reclaimed much of it, though a few remnants and reminders of a once-bustling place, where an underground fire may burn for another 200 years, still stand.

Two other spots are Eckley Miner’s Village- an authentic 19th-century coal town- and Lackawanna No. 9, an actual coal mine in Scranton, PA that people can still enter and tour.

Wintry Fun

Daily writing prompt
Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.

The Eagles Mere toboggan slide. It’s weather-dependent, of course, because hundreds of 12-inch thick slabs of ice are needed for the run itself, and it ends on a lake that has to be thick enough to support the weight of many riders.

This winter, folks are actually talking as if it might happen. Fifty seconds of exhiliration, a quarter-mile long. A tradition since the early 1900s.