Friday, September 4, 2009 9:24 PM CDT
COLUMN: Indoor swimming, sightseeing offered in downtown Centralia
By ROB STROUD, Staff Writer
rstroud@jg-tc.com
Today is scheduled to be the last time the Charleston public swimming pool will be open this year, and the Mattoon public swimming pool has already closed for the season.
Summer’s end does not have to mean the end of swimming, though. For instance, there are opportunities for indoor swimming all year long at the Mattoon Area YMCA and Sullivan Civic Center.
Those interested in traveling farther afield for a day of indoor swimming and sightseeing could look south to downtown Centralia, where the community recreation complex houses a 25-yard lap pool, a spiral water slide, a whirlpool, and a children’s wading pool.
My wife, Beckie, and I took our 3-year-old daughter, Hannah, on an Amtrak train trip one Saturday last spring to Centralia before our local public swimming pools opened for the season.
I had wanted to visit this town since glimpsing the 160-foot-tall Centralia Carillon bell tower from a distance several years ago while traveling on U.S. Route 51. I arranged a visit after learning this year that the indoor pool is adjacent to Centralia’s train depot.
We left Mattoon on an 11:05 a.m. train bound for Centralia. The trip is scheduled to take about 1 hour, 10 minutes, but can take longer when the passenger train needs to yield to freight traffic. We passed the time on the way south with a picnic lunch we had packed.
Once we disembarked, we took a short walk south past a vintage wooden water tower and arrived at the Centralia Recreation Complex. We gained admittance by purchasing day passes, priced at $4 per adult and $3 per child.
Our afternoon at the recreation complex passed quickly as we alternated swimming laps with lazing around in the wading pool and the hot, bubbling whirlpool. Hannah was a few inches too short for the water slide, but Beckie and I swooshed down it a couple of times.
We did not get to see much of the recreation complex’s other facilities, but what we did see was impressive.
The locker rooms were well appointed with private shower stalls. The 13,000-square-foot gym was hosting a youth basketball tournament that day, but the recreation complex is large enough that we did not notice the crowds from the pool area.
After getting cleaned up in the locker rooms, we walked a couple of blocks northeast across the downtown to the towering Centralia Carillon. We craned our necks skyward to see the top of the tower and admired the small park at its base.
The carillon’s brochure reports that the tower’s 65 bells were installed in 1982-83, and the largest weighs 11,000 pounds. The carillon hosts an annual summer concert series and also takes appointments for tours.
While walking back to the rail line, we stopped along the way at the colorful J.D.’s Music Emporium music and pop culture shop. The downtown is home to several businesses and hosts special events, such as the annual Fall Festival and Halloween Parade on the last Saturday in October.
Our visit downtown concluded with dinner along the rail line at the Centralia House restaurant, located in a former saloon and sporting house building that is more than 100 years old.
I have heard the Centralia House is popular with those who ride the train north from Carbondale for an evening of fine dining. For us, it was a great location to relax while waiting for our 6:08 p.m. train home.
We sampled each other’s cheese and blue cheese burgers, cajun two-bean soup and salad. We ordered a slice of the restaurant’s signature chocolate and nut pie to go, but it proved to be too tempting to resist. We made short work of the gooey pie before we even left the restaurant.
Tired from a day of swimming and walking and full from a big meal, we settled down in our passenger train’s café car and let the conductor drive us home.
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Dottedline wrote on Sep 8, 2009 3:23 PM: