#2: [07-Aug-09]

22-Oct-2000 -- I recently made a trip to Kansas City, MO from St. Louis, Mo. The 39 Degree North latitude runs very close to Interstate 70 through the Midwest. So I took the opportunity to visit the three along this route. The confluence of 39n 94w near Odessa has already been visited, but I wanted to see it anyway... (BTW, there is also a Geocache there as well) http://www.geocaching.com.

Anyway. . I drove out of St. Louis on a Sunday afternoon. A very dreary day. Light rain and cool temps. The 1st Confluence I came to was 39n92w. I didn't bother to look at road maps and plan my route to any of these points. I tend to find it more interesting to just drive while trying to predict where the roads will go. I use the bearing and distance feature on my Garmin E-Trex to help as well. This one is only 3 to 4 miles off I-70 anyway. At any rate... I turned on M highway off of I-70. Then wound up due west of the confluence and noticed a gravel driveway going to the east. (I later looked at MapQuest and could see that the driveway had a name "Sunshine Rd." So I turned on to the driveway and was about a third of a mile at that point.

The drive was longer than I thought it was going to be. I wound up 800-1000 feet south of the point. There was a family unloading groceries or something into the house and saw me walking up. I spoke first and let them know I wasn't trying to sell them something or bug them in any way like that. They were pleased. Anyway. . I explained to them what I was trying to do and told them the web address etc. etc. He didn't know that there was a point on his property. He was really nice and was interested in what I was doing. I asked if it was ok if I walked around on his farm and took some photos and stuff. He said that was fine. So I took off to the north along a nice cart track next to the field. There was a big power line that you can see in pic #1 that I went by. Then I was due west again. I was along a fence row, next to a cow pasture. I walked along there for the last 500 to 600 feet.

There was a big tree near the point (you can see this tree on pic #1 in the background to the left of the building -- the short one with red leaves) and then from the confluence in pic #2. The coordinates of the tree are 38.99984n 92.00042w.

Then took a pic of the confluence in pic #3. and finally of the GPS in the last pic #4. This was my very first visit to a confluence and I was very pleased (except with the GPS pic #4) I did the next two along I-70 as well and look forward to many more... I plan on visiting many more, especially in Missouri.