#4: [06-Apr-11]

#3: [11-Jan-06]

#2: [25-Aug-04]

05-Dec-1999 -- Sunday, December 5, 1999 was a windy, cool (48 F.) day on which I had little to do. Unless, of course, I wanted to help string Christmas lights in the shrubbery in front of our house here in Little Rock. Hmmm. The decision was an easy one. I decided to locate the N35 W92 confluence.

Earlier, I had plotted out the Arkansas confluences using my Garmin GPS, Garmin's Mapsource CD and www.mapblast.com. Of the Arkansas confluences, this was the closest to Little Rock. It looked to be in a pipeline right-of-way just north of HW-167, a 4 lane, limited access highway that runs northeast of Little Rock. I took the exit for Austin, AR, about 30 miles northeast of Little Rock, crossed over the 4-lane and tried the first road north of the access road. I went southwest on that road for a time but it was marked "dead end" and "private drive" so I decided that a more direct but cross country approach was in order. I got back on the 4-lane and traveled southwest about 1/2 mile until the GPS told me I was a couple hundred feet away from the waypoint I had set for the confluence. I pulled off the highway and entered a treeline and walked north, the direction the GPS told me to go. I used a compass because the GPS gets its directions confused at walking speed; the bearing information is still valid, though. I got within less than 20 feet of the waypoint per the GPS but things started getting difficult. The Department of Defense had SA, its system for dithering GPS satellite signals, really operating: standing stock still the GPS thought it was moving from 1.5 to 2.5 miles per hour. I finally gave up getting things to settle down enough that I could get a photograph of the GPS registering the precise position. I satisfied myself that I was quite close to the confluence and took photographs showing a panorama of what I must confess is not a terribly scenic site. The meadow looking area is the pipeline right-of-way. The confluence is in that, only about 200 feet off HW-167. The roof that appears in one picture is an outbuilding for a house that lies pretty much due north of the confluence. The roof is across a 3 acre pond, the earthen dam for which may also appear in one of the photographs.

This is fun! I'll have to visit some of the other confluence sites.