#1: [06-Oct-01]

23-May-2025 -- As it has been my tradition for the last many years to take an extended weekend over the US Memorial Day holiday to visit railroad depots, abandoned buildings, grain silos, campgrounds, county courthouses, convenience stores, agricultural fields, and confluence points, I had been looking forward to this trip for an entire year. You would think that after 500 points behind me, I would grow tired of this, but not so as a geographer. There was always the attraction of getting out into the field. Finally, the day came.

This year, one of my aims was to connect the large number of points forming an oblong shape in the central and western part of the USA with my large shape to the eastern side of the Midwest. Several points between those two shapes would be wonderful if they could be filled in, I thought. There was a reason why I had not visited these points already--they would require some trekking. This filling-in goal dictated the first part of my trek; and the rest were points that I had never visited but were in some of my favorite landscapes, that of Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois. The final statistics of the trip are below. When I look at the line "points that proved to be much more difficult than I had anticipated", 42 North 99 West stands out!

After spending the night in the beautiful campground at the Nebraska state forest at Halsey, next to the greenhouses for the experimental trees and plants, I set out early in the day wherein it was already raining. Would I be able to traverse the gravel roads I knew lay between me and the confluence points today? Earlier this very morning, I successfully visited 42 North 100 West, and now, I found myself heading north on Nebraska State Highway 11. With 4 miles between myself and the confluence point to the east northeast, I stopped and parked.

Why had I decided to walk from there? The road ahead of me was dirt with a few bits of gravel and it was just starting to rain. I had no truck and I did not want to get stuck out here. I knew it would be a long walk, but enjoyed the windy walk while donning my hat, raincoat, and gloves, as it was also unusually cold for this late in the spring. No doubt over the next week or even the next few days, the heat of the summer would begin to set in. About 15 minutes into my walk, a friendly person in a vehicle came up from behind me; we chatted about my mission and he said that the point would be on his neighbor's land. I waved goodbye and thanked him. After an hour's walk, I came to the house at the eastern end of the road. Backing out of his garage, to my surprise was the same person with whom I had chatted on the road! Then this same landowner did something extremely kind: He offered to drive me in his ATV toward the point. I was grateful and the 3 of us (including his dog) set out toward the northeast.

It was only 1 mile to the point, but within a minute of our fun and bouncy ride, I was even more grateful, as I saw that the area was traversed by numerous ditches and low places between the sand hills, which were all under water about shin-high. As it turned out, we had to leave the ATV with about a 25 minute walk ahead of us due to standing water; we made wet but good progress and successfully reached the point. We even saw a box turtle on the site! As we suspected, the confluence lies in one of the meadows that the landowner cuts hay from each Fall, just south of a row of sand hills. If I had been forced to walk all the way here, it literally would have taken me the entire rest of the afternoon.

It was just after noon in late spring, windy and cloudy skies and cool for this time of year temperature of about 52° F. This was one of the most beautiful points I have ever visited, after over 500 points visited worldwide over 25 years. I do love the Sand Hills. The land slopes gently toward the south. There are really no houses visible from this entire area. We saw only a few birds. It was grand to be on the 99th Meridian. I reflected that it had been many years since the last visit, though certainly the landowner had been here cutting hay each Fall and the Indigenous People traversing the area for centuries before that. I took pictures and posted this video 42 North Latitude, 99 West Longitude.

I now have a very nice collection of confluence points in Nebraska spanning 25 years of visits but had not visited a point in the state (other than this morning's trek to 42 N 100 W) since 2021 during one of my extended confluence trips. This was my last point along 42 North to visit for the state! It took me 25 years, but - done! I have stood on 42° north latitude in many places from Wyoming on the west all the way east to Massachusetts. I have also stood on 99° West on the north end in North Dakota many times all the way down along 99° west to Texas on the south end. These points cover an amazingly wide range of landforms, climate zones, and vegetation types.

Right when we were creating photos and this 42 North 99 West video, we heard a fairly loud thunderclap. You can in the video see the approaching rain. We took this as a good sign to depart! We walked back to the ATV, with the dog having a happy time splashing around in the terrain.

We then traversed the hills to visit an amazing Artesian well on his property, and back to the landowner's garage. Then the landowner very kindly drove me all the way back to my vehicle! I was grateful for this too because it began raining very hard as we drove on the road I had previously walked down, about two hours earlier, followed by some brief but fairly violent sleet. I offered to pay the landowner for all his efforts but he refused. I left him my contact information so we could keep in touch as we had a very nice set of chats about all things water, geography, land, and more. I do love learning from and talking with people who are our land stewards. It was too wet once back at my vehicle given the weather conditions to change my socks and shoes, but mission accomplished. By now it was nearly 1400 in the afternoon.

I then headed due south, with an aim of reaching 41 North 99 West. Onward and with gratitude!

When the trip was all said and done, here are the final statistics:

-------------------------------------------------
Days set aside to visit points:  4 + 1 evening.

Confluence points attempted:  13.  

Confluence points successfully visited:  13. 

Points where I met the local landowner = 5 of 13 points. 

Points where I met the local dogs = 2 of 13 points.

Miles = 2547, Kilometers = 4099.
  
Percent of travel on interstate highways:  25%
Percent of travel on US, state, and county roads:  75 % :-)

Campgrounds = 4.  

Windy confluence points:  4 of 13.
Rainy confluence points:  4 of 13.
Beautiful confluence points:   13 of 13.

Convenience store stops = 8.  

Points that turned out to be

                easier than I thought they would be =           1 
                about the same as I expected them to be =       4 
                more difficult than I thought they would be =   8 
		-------------------------------------------------------
			                                     13 points.
Points          in woodlands             2
		in non-tilled fields     4
		in agricultural fields   7
		-----------------------------------
			                13 points.

Points along 	42 North = 2 
		41 North = 1 
		40 North = 5 
		39 North = 3
                38 North = 1
                37 North = 1  
		----------------
			   13 points.

Points visited on 	Day 1 = 4 
			Day 2 = 4 
			Day 3 = 4 
			Day 4 = 1
		-------------------
			   	13 points.  

Points visited in the 	morning = 	5 
			afternoon = 	5 
			evening = 	3 
		-------------------------------
			   	       13 points

Points visited in 	Nebraska =       3
			Kansas =         2
			Missouri =       5 
			Illinois =       3
		-------------------------------
			   		13 points 

The most frequently visited longitude line:  
-------------------------------------------- 
                                      92 West:  3 points.

2nd most frequently visited longitude line:  
---------------------------------------------
                                      89 West and 99 West:  2 points each.

Get out there and explore!