#2: [21-Oct-18]

#1: [31-Mar-01]

25-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.

After spending the night in the beautiful campground at the Sever Lake Conservation Area, and spending time in the Newark Missouri old fashioned city park, and then visiting 40 North 91 West in western Illinois, I found myself heading east to 40 North 89 West. But I could not resist stopping for 45 minutes in the town of Mt Sterling Illinois. Why? Well, the music playing at the town corners, the antique shop, Methodist Church, and the mural of the marching bands were just a few attractions of the lovely town. Reluctantly I departed, heading east to 40 North 89 West once more.

Why did I skip a visit to 40 North 90 West? I had already been there about 10 years before. I did violate my own rule slightly by traveling on the interstate highway for part of this part of the journey, as my plan was to visit 4 confluence points today; 3 in Illinois and this evening, one in Missouri, which lay a long way to the southwest. I left I-72 at Highway 121 near Decatur, and then took section line roads north, east, and north, stopping where a gravel road led from Janvrin Road due west to one of the many wind turbines here. The sky darkened.

So far this weekend, I visited several points that were a lot more difficult than I thought they would be. This one was exactly as I expected with few surprises: Corn, soybeans, and wind power, in the very flat corn belt, one of the flattest places in North America. But it has its own charm!

I walked west along the road, then very gingerly stepped northwest to the point. It was early afternoon in late spring, windy and cloudy skies and cool for this time of year temperature of about 75° F. It was lightly raining but fortunately no thunderstorms at present. This was a semi-peaceful point, though the turbines were making some swooshing noises, to be sure. I found the point in a field planted in corn, and this year, the one to the south was in soybeans. You can see in my photos and video that the corn was about a half meter high and thus I was very careful not to step on anything. This field would be more difficult to traverse near harvest time. About a half dozen farmhouses were visible along the horizons but I saw no people or animals, the birds were noticeably absent, perhaps wisely avoiding the turbines.

It was grand to be on the 40th Parallel once again. With this point I now have at least 40 points along 40 North, all the way from California on the west to New Jersey on the east, plus a point in Spain at 40 North 0 East. I am missing very few points along 40 North in the USA - just a few in Utah and Nevada, really. I have also been on the 89th Meridian numerous times, from Wisconsin on the north to Mississippi on the south. These include many diverse landscapes, flora, and fauna. I reflected that it had been a few years since the last visit, and my visit was only the third visit, though certainly the landowner had been here planting and harvesting each season and the Indigenous People traversing the area for centuries before that. I took pictures and posted this video 40 North Latitude, 89 West Longitude.

I now have a very nice collection of confluence points in Illinois spanning 25 years of visits. I might be missing only one point in the entire state. Wanting to be respectful of any landowner that might be looking at me with binoculars, I was on site for only 10 minutes. I then walked back the way I came in, again careful not to step on any plants. I filmed some videos and took photos with my 360 degree camera, too. I departed the area, traveling mostly south through some wonderful towns but mostly open rural areas en route to my third confluence destination of the day--39 North 89 West. Could I make it? As I traveled I reflected on my chat with the landowner from that same morning. I do love learning from and talking with people who are our land stewards.

Onward 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!