16-Aug-2008 -- After successfully reaching 34N, 99W last week, I decided to look for more confluence points around Texas that needed some revisiting. I recruited Joe G, a friend of mine in San Antonio, to come along for the hunt for 29N, 98W. We also brought Joe’s dog Dallas along for the hunt.

We initially parked alongside County Road 237 at a point about 1000 ft. SE of the confluence. The lot immediately to the NW of the dirt road has no development on it and is indeed for sale for anyone interested in living out here in God’s country, but based on aerial images from Google Maps the confluence itself is actually in the lot behind the one for sale. On the first attempt, we brought out the GPS, camera, letter to landowners and our overly excited black lab. Hopping over the gate and crossing the field were not difficult even though the gate was rusty and the grass pretty high. Dallas was out discovering all sorts of smells in the field but managed to stay near us the whole time. We soon reached the barbed wire fence that surrounds the second lot but were quickly discovered by a rather unfriendly white donkey just on the other side. The donkey quickly trotted up to the fence and got pretty worked up at the sight of the dog, at which point the dog in his brilliance crossed under the fence and proceeded to get the living daylights kicked out of him! After two swift kicks from the donkey’s hind legs, Dallas got the message and crawled back under and waited cautiously by his masters until they could figure out what to do about this unexpected custodian of the confluence.

It was obvious that we were not going to get past the donkey with the dog, and we weren’t sure that we could even without him. Dallas didn’t have any visible injuries, so we walked him back to the car and decided to drive around to see if there were any other ways to reach our goal of 29N, 98W. While driving on CR-229 we passed the radio mast that the previous visitor had noted back in 2002. On this road, however, there were enough houses to discourage a trek from the southwest or northwest.

So we arrived back at the gate we parked at on the first attempt. We left the dog in the car this time, but cracked the windows and the sunroof of the vehicle enough to give him some air. Hiking across the lot for sale got us back to the fence and the same donkey, who had remained vigilantly standing at the fence. Joe and I took a few minutes discussing alternatives for dealing with the donkey and crossing the fence, when suddenly the donkey seemed to lose interest in us and started walking away! With this stroke of luck, we decided to proceed. We found the point on the gate with the highest clearance, and I was the lucky one who got to crawl under in the dirt. Joe volunteered to stay behind and distract the donkey while I went off to get the pictures. Even with Joe trying to keep the donkey’s attention from the other side of the fence, it kept a watchful eye on me as I found the point and snapped some photos, but didn’t feel the need to come closer. After less than 5 minutes at the point I went back for Joe and we headed back to the truck.

On the way out we got a shot of an interesting old bridge on CR-237 and later the same gas station that Gordon Spence marveled at 6.5 years ago. Now he actually would be paying 98 cents per liter here! I don’t want to imagine what he’s paying back home now.