PhotoBike Tour 1: Slavia

It was still sunny (hot) and dry at noon today, and so I decided to take the bike trail east to Slavia. There’s a little Lutheran church I wanted to photograph and, as usual with me, I got talking to people when I thought was simply looking for some solitude.

  

The bike trail heading east; it ends apruptly at Aloma Avenue, so you’ve got to cross the road and pick up the sidewalk, or continue in the bike lane. After a few miles you’ll end up in downtown Oviedo, where you can pick up the Cross Seminole Trail.

St. Luke the Evangelizer Lutheran Church, Slavia.

After wandering inside, I was greeted by a gentleman who suggested I check in with the office– no doubt he thought I was some sweaty intruder, but I introduced myself and shook hands and was soon given carte blanche to explore. An older gentleman appeared in the new sanctuary and gave me a verbal tour of the stained glass windows in there, referring to notes that he pulled from his wallet. As I was leaving, a Ms. Cooper gave me a brochure detailing the history of St. Luke’s.

Below is some etched stained glass in the chapel– that’s the Moravian Jan Hus at the stake, and Martin Luther with his 95 theses.

There’s also another little church south of here in Jamestown, an African-American community established in about 1900 by Benjamin and Esther James. There’s a plaque mounted in front explaining the village’s history. You can bike through Jamestown further east until linking up with Walker Road, which then ambles and dead ends amidst some modest little houses which are across the road from some not-so-modest houses– all of which seem to have giant pool enclosures.

The church in Jamestown.

This was a good day of bike riding: I love getting away from everything and just disappearing for a few hours, even if today I ran into a group of very nice Lutherans who wanted to share their history with me. And that was fine.