#2: [05-Apr-24]

22-Aug-1999 - It was late Sunday afternoon, not too hot outside, and neither Emily or I had any pressing appointments. When I suggested a ride out to Polar, Texas, she said "Why not?" So we did.

Polar is a town of no inhabitants, no malls, and no convenience (or other) stores about 20 miles from Snyder. I occasionally go stargazing there, since there are only a couple of yard lights. Polar does have a community center, the ruins of a school, and a cemetery - more on it later.

We turned west off Farm-to-Market Road 1142 onto a dirt road a little ways south of Polar itself, and drove about 0.6 mile west. We then hiked about a quarter mile across a vacant cow pasture to my best guess at the confluence. We were immediately convinced of our accuracy by the anthill pictured in Photo #3; the Queen Ant obviously found the confluence first by looking for the white soil (probably gypsum) that she then had her workers bring to the surface to mark the spot. In Photo #1, Emily is standing a couple of feet in front of this highly geographic anthill and indicating North and West.

Photo #4 looks NNW from the confluence toward an area officially known as The Badlands - a wild place that looks like they should still be making Lone Ranger TV shows out there. Sort of a Bryce Canyon feel, but shorter formations and more dirt-like than real sandstone.

Finally, Photo #2 shows the most interesting headstone of the fifteen in the Polar Cemetery. Hmmmm.