#2: [13-May-17]

#1: [06-Mar-01]

24-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 Marysville Kansas in their city park, and after a walk around their lovely town, I made a stop at Casey's for coffee, and found myself heading east on US 36, through northeast Kansas, into St Joseph Missouri, and north and east to the neighborhood of the point. I paused at the lovely and reverent Civil Bend Cemetery about 8 miles to the west of the point and continued on gravel roads, ending on July Road. I had no truck and the road condition deteriorated as I drove; fortunately it was not raining today, unlike yesterday, when I would not have attempted this. In fact, right now was the clearest it would be on this entire confluence weekend.

I chose to stop on a low spot on July Road, to the southeast of the point, and then hiked north and up a grassy clearing through the trees to approach the point. This was the right choice. I made very good progress despite the tripping hazards and thorns at the very start. Emerging on the uplands, I tacked to the north-northwest. After traversing the meadow, I did see something unexpected: A pond lay directly in front of me. I skirted it on the north side and then found out that very fortunately for me, the confluence would lie beyond the pond off a bit more to the west.

After skirting the pond, I achieved zero-zero on the GPS. So far this weekend, I visited several points that were a lot more difficult than I thought they would be. This one was slightly more difficult than I expected but no more than 40 minutes from the vehicle.

It was late morning in late spring, breezy but sunny skies and just beginning to get hot, with a temperature of about 82° F. The land use here is largely grazing and farming; landforms and land cover are hills, woods, and some ponds. The land slopes up to the north from the point and is a bit rolling. There are no houses visible from this point. I saw a few birds including a lovely heron on the pond. It was grand to be on the 40th parallel again. I reflected that it had been 8 years since the last visit from my colleague Ross, and mine was only the third visit, though certainly the landowner had been here before and the Indigenous People traversing the area for centuries before that. There did not appear to be anything planted in this field although clearly it had been grazed by cattle in the past. I took pictures but no doubt I was looking disheveled as I had slept for the entire weekend's nights in a rental car: However, it was all part of the adventure! I also posted this video 40 North Latitude, 94 West Longitude. I was on site about 20 minutes filming and enjoying the rural landscape.

I went out the way I came in, reaching the vehicle after filming some 360 degree videos, including this one from prairie to woodland.

The entire hike took about an hour and 30 minutes with 20 minutes on the point. I now have a very nice collection of confluence points in Missouri spanning 25 years of visits. I had not visited a point in the state since 2021 during one of my extended confluence trips. From here, I have an unbroken string along 40 north 1 degree east of here, then all the way to the Utah state line at 40 North 109 West--that is 16 degrees of longitude. It took me 25 years, but now it was done! I have stood on 40° north latitude in many other places from California to New Jersey, and across the ocean over in Spain. I have also stood on 94° West on the north end in Minnesota many times all the way down along 94° west to a very wet spot in Texas on the south end. These points cover an amazingly wide range of landforms, climate zones, and vegetation types.

My vehicle upon return was blazing hot but mission accomplished. I then departed the area, traveling east and south through some wonderful towns en route to 39 North 93 West to the southeast. My first stop was Jameson, Missouri, with a largely empty but wonderful 3 block Main Street.

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!