2013 Road Trip - Hanover Twp

I was thoroughly surprised - and impressed - with how closely my driving times matched the Google Maps estimates for the various legs of this year's road trip. I finished crossing Illinois, Indiana, and the greater part of Ohio and pulled into Malvern right on time at 5pm.

I was pleasantly surprised too by the courtesy of the Illinois and Indiana drivers on I-74 and I-70. Those in Ohio were okay till we approached Columbus, but then the drivers started getting a bit squirrelly. Still, they generally let faster drivers pass on the left, but the first two that didn't were sporting Indiana plates. Go figure!

Remember this scanned postcard shot of St Philip Neri? I said I'd try to match the view if I could. I analyzed the angles and the line of sight seemed to match that from the Brinkey farm. I couldn't estimate the distance very well from the picture, but now think it was taken from Gravers Road about halfway between the Brinkey Farm and the church.

These shots are from Bethesda Road, south of the Brinkey farm. If intervening trees weren't in the way, the hills tended to obscure views of the church.

The zoom lens really makes a difference. I ordered my Canon with a 95mm portrait lens rather than the standard 55mm. I quickly ordered the zoom (with image stabilization) and haven't taken it off the camera since. It may be the zoom or it may be the stabilization, but I love it.

After checking out St Philip's, I went by the Wernet farm and discovered someone had stolen the barn since my visit with Cathie and Mom last summer. I checked with my cousins and found that, when the roof caved in, the barn was bulldozed, with the large timbers being salvaged and the rest pushed into a hollow. It's all grown over now and, if you didn't know where to look, you'd never know it had been there.

These last three pictures were taken of land my great, great grandfather (Old William) owned. The first two are north of the farm Mom grew up on and the third one, with the small christmas trees, is the property immediately east.

Perhaps it's just the time of year I made this trip, but from the time I started driving around looking at farmland (for whatever reason) I was taken by the productivity of the land. I guess part of it is comparison with Texas and the western US this side of the Sierras where farming lags behind ranching. You just don't get the same feeling of life erupting from every pore of the earth.