24-Aug-2008 -- It’s that time again for the annual trip to Kankakee Illinois area to get kids back in college. I had planned an attempt to do two visits on this trip and I was going to get them done the same day. Little did I know I was going to get three when this day started.

Another first on this trip was the fact that after I got the kids there I didn’t do much. I told them they are here, YOU unload the trailer. I also only supervised the rental truck and it’s loading of things from the storage unit. Once we were back on campus my wife and I went Geocaching. Easiest move in day I ever had!

Funny thing is near 90/94 split I was talking and momentarily confused and took the wrong turn. But didn’t realize it until we crossed the border into Minnesota. We needed to make a pit stop at the rest stop. We were greeted by a very nice young man from the MDOT (Minnesota Department of Transportation) Said he was doing a survey and asked if we minded answering a few questions. What route did you take to get here and what brought you to this rest stop? While my wife was confused I explained that I just discovered We’re lost. While I was planning a new route home and, Suzanne had gone inside, I remembered there are two confluence points in southern Minnesota I wanted to attempt if I were ever in the area. When I found we were just 58 Km from this one I thought, Suzanne is not going to believe it wasn’t an accident. Well when I found the wife I had a map in hand and said lets hurry I got one more confluence point to do. Eyes rolled and Oh My! Not another point thing.

From that time on we were in a race with the sun. From the exit I took I turned left on what I thought was Hwy 14 but I think it was County 14 and gravel and I couldn’t retrace the way we went now. But we got on some black top and arrived at 20:00 CDT(01:00 UTC) The pictures are evident of the lateness of the day I wish it had been better but corn field is corn field and that is evident. The actual confluence point was 70 meters south into the field GPS accuracy was excellent at 5 meters. No need to do any dancing here and only had to tell one passerby “We’re ok no help needed. Thanks for asking.”

Ok now instead of getting home at 20:30 – 21:00 local CDT(01:20-02:00UTC) we were going to get home about 23:00(04:00UTC) Too bad it was dark I would have enjoyed southern Minnesota through Rochester. Maybe next trip. Let’s see what other Cp’s could I do in this area ???????? Graduation in May??? We’ll see.