#9: [11-Oct-14]

#8: [13-Apr-11]

#7: [20-Jan-11]

#6: [02-Nov-10]

#5: [18-Mar-08]

#3: [08-Mar-03]

#4: [06-Mar-03]

#2: [15-Mar-01]

#1: [09-Oct-98]

11-Feb-2016 -- This is the fifth out of seven reports on confluence visits during a car trip across the USA. The story starts at 39°N 77°W and continues from 33°N 85°W.

In the morning we stayed in a motel in the little town Opelika (Alabama). We entered the coordinates into the car navigation and drove 6 hours without mayor stops until the GPS guided us to the gate of CSX Transportation Railway at the end of Elaine Street. I explained the concept of confluence visits to the gate keeper. Without asking for more details, he let us inside. But he only gave us 5 minutes to visit the point and be back to the gate. When I asked for 15 minutes, he gave us 20 minutes sharp. This was surely enough time to make a successful visit.

We parked our vehicle at a distance of 168 m, crossed a siding and walked over a meadow up to the confluence point. The weather was excellent and all the four of us were happy to be out there! 50 m from the confluence, there is a dam and a waterway of the harbour area.

This point is what I call “hyper-confluence”, one of those rare species with both, latitude and longitude being divisible by 10. There are only 17 * 36 + 2 = 614 hyper-confluences on Earth, and about 200 of them located on land! This is my fifth hyper-confluence: I had visited 60°N 10°EW, 40°N 0°EW, 40°N 110°E and 50°N 10°E. This time I was able to align all twelve zeroes at the GPS display.

After the visit, we continued our drive to the French Quater of New Orleans.

CP Visit Details:

• Distance to a road: 900 m
• Distance to a footpath: 160 m
• Distance of car parking: 168 m
• Time to reach the CP from the car: 3 min
• Time at the CP: 2:39 PM
• Measured height: 4 m
• Minimal distance according to GPS: 0 m
• Position accuracy: 2 m
• Topography: flat, only a dam nearby
• Vegetation: grass, nearby a row of trees
• Weather: sunny 22° C (felt temperature)
• Given Name: The Siding Hyper-Confluence

The story continues at 31°N 96°W.