The Moline family farm- Namesake for Moline Road |
Granted, this "church" was off the road by maybe a 1/4 mile up a drive that went North and then bent back Westward, but if it was anything like most traditional, rural churches, you'd be able to spot the steeple a mile away. I went on recon, but never saw anything in the general vicinity that I remembered the map saying I should see a church.
So, I went back home and got the map up on the computer and made a special note of the location, and planned to find it next time I went out, which was Saturday. I took the Black Mountain Cycles "Orange Crush" bike and stuffed my notes into the front bag, just in case I forgot where I was to be looking specifically. I was determined to find this place, and my whole ride was centered around getting to its location and back again.
A quick stop to rest after plowing into the wind for miles at Bennington School. |
Well, I looked, and I saw a driveway, with a few farm outbuildings and a home, but I did not see a church. I rode by slowly, looked back several times, but......nothing. Either that or I couldn't see it and it really was there. Hmm..... Oh well. Onward.
I went up Marquis Road to Burton Avenue and saw the old East Janesville Church, then moving South, I passed St. Pauls Church. The wind was at my back then, and I was flying along. The roads were smooth, almost "hero gravel" like, but there were still patches of loose gravel. The roads were packed in due to all the heavy rain we had in the previous days last week. I expect that by the time the Geezer Ride happens that we will see more fresh gravel as the county maintenance crews get busy and "repair" the damage from the wet weather. We'd be too lucky to have the roads this nice next weekend!
The flowers are on the wane, but there were several ditches marked with yellow ones like these yet. |
Old East Janesville Church |
Anyway, I suppose some of you are thinking, "Google earth, you knucklehead!", and I will admit, I am aware of it. I just didn't want to do it that way. I wanted to discover it on my own, so to speak, and looking at the satellite images before hand kind of takes away from the experience for me. However; I had exhausted all options short of trespassing on private property to investigate "up close". So,when I got home, I fired up the Google Earth and checked it out.
Well, Google Earth shows that there is a church there after all. I guess we'll just have to stop and gawk from the road if we can this coming Saturday and see if we can make it out. Otherwise, there are five other easily seen churches on the route, an old cemetery, (likely an old church site), and Bennington School. So, we'll get to see some historic, old, rural landmarks that have seen a lot of time and history pass them by. I know my European readers will chuckle at the thought of a "mere 100 plus year old building" as being special, but hey! It's what we have here! This land hasn't been settled for very long, which is something we tend to forget.
By the way, the Geezer Ride Page has been updated with a link to the map of the course. CLICK HERE
Sorry for going off topic, but where did you get that bag?
ReplyDelete@Jim Mearkle- It is an out of production bag/former company called Cristobal. Too bad they don't make these anymore.
ReplyDelete