03-Jul-2000 -- I located the confluences that we
might pass near while on our holiday trip to Minnesota. 44-00-00 N by
93-00-00 West was pretty close to our planned route, so away we went.
It lay about 30 feet off a country road just south of the small town of
Claremont.
Our Impala rolled down the road towing a plume of dust while the GPS
indicated 44-00-01 N and the longitude reading was climbing upwards
about 1 second of longitude for every 3 seconds of time. As the counter
climbed up through 92-59-30, I slowed the car and allowed the rooster
tail of dust to begin to settle. When we hit 92-59-50 my wife and I
began to scan the field for the spot. When the zeros registered, we
were looking at young corn sitting in neat rows in mud freshly created
from a nice summer rain.
Since I use my GPS daily in my work, but this was the first time that
we had taken notice of being at the point of a confluence, I was
surprised at the excitement that I felt. My wife, too, was excited that
we had so easily found a notable spot on the globe. We will continue to
locate other confluence sites as we travel around in my work.