#4: [07-Nov-15]

#3: [13-Jul-09]

#2: [28-May-05]

28-Jan-2001 -- She said:

It was cloudy. The weather predictors had said there would be scattered showers. Jeff and I had planned to find the confluence located at 31°N 95°W today. The GPS Unit was indicating pretty good satellite coverage before we left Houston. We decided to go.

Jeff had already gotten all our maps together, as usual. We had a pleasant, uneventful drive to within 0.8 miles of the confluence. It didn't even rain on us on the way there.

We had to park the truck on the side of a dirt road and take off walking into a heavily wooded area. For a few minutes it looked like that 0.8 miles was going to present some difficulty. It didn't. Within a few feet we found ourselves following a public utility easement. Either side of the easement was heavily wooded. We didn't have to go there. When we reached the confluence it was off the easement slightly. It was also the only clearing off the easement. Jeff just walked right up to the spot. We saw the zero's we were looking for within minutes of reaching the area. Then the clouds rolled in. The GPS unit had us several feet off the spot. We checked the probable error and it was at 33'. It seemed that we weren't having such good luck after all. Jeff went ahead and dropped a lighter at the spot we had and I took off to find the new spot. It rained on us. The face of the GPS had water drops on it and I kept drying it off. I was really worried about Jeff's digital camera. We waited out the rain. The clouds backed off. I resumed my search for "the spot". I found it. And, found myself standing directly above the lighter Jeff had dropped within the the first few minutes of reaching the area. Jeff got the picture of the zero's.

It's been a good day.

He said:

For our second confluence we picked one that had not been tried before; the one at 31N x 95W. Both mapblast and topozone said we could drive to with in easy walking distance but the final mile or two were unimproved road according to topozone so we hopped in the Trooper this time.

When we left Houston the temp was about 68 and the sky overcast making the drive North on US59 a pleasure - the fact that it was Superbowl Sunday helped keep the traffic light. We hung a left at the junction with Texas 287 while Anne's GPS was telling us we were a bit over 10 miles East of the confluence.

A bit over nine miles later, we found the dirt road we were looking for (picture 2). Taking a left, and following the ruts, we eventually came to a electric utility right of way that the GPS was pointing directly up. We parked the truck, marked it, and started walking North.

As soon as we got into the right of way, we saw that we could have driven on it's access road, but we were only about .7 miles from the confluence and continued afoot. While the right of way was clear, there was medium dense woods on both sides. That is dense until we came to the actual confluence (picture 1) where we found a small clearing.

Holding the GPS I walked into the clearing, got a reading that was very close, and dropped a marker. Then handed the GPS to Anne so she could find the zeros we wanted (picture 3). While she was working, a light rain started but she persisted until she could announce success, at that point I got a shot of the GPS (picture 4) and setup for the 'group' shot (picture 5).

On the way back to the truck, I got this picture of the right of way facing South (picture 6).