#3: [23-Nov-13]

#2: [17-Jan-11] (incomplete)

04-Jul-2001 -- Just a few days ago I was searching the net for information about a lake in Texas when I stumbled upon a link to the degree confluence 33N 96W which is near that lake. Being of curious nature, I read on to discover what the Degree Confluence Project was all about and found that there was a confluence point near my home that had not yet been visited. This point is near a small town that is home of a well known man, Bo Pilgrim, and Pilgrim's Pride Chicken! I wanted to visit the confluence as soon as possible so I decided to make it a "family venture" on our nation's Independence Day, July 4th. What better day than this to go traipsing down a railroad track and jumping barbedwire fences?

I, my wife, our daughter and her husband started out at 9:45 a.m. in hopes to get a jump on this Texas heat and humidity. It jumped us instead. It was already approaching 95 degrees by the time we got out of the car after the one hour drive to Pittsburg from our home. From Highway 11 we went south on a narrow county road then parked right off the beaten path beside the railroad tracks -- near one of the many chicken farms in this region. Wow, what in the WORLD is that smell??? I grabbed the duffle bag packed with tripod, cameras, and other digital necessities. We walked west on the railroad track with the blazing sun smacking us right on the back. No shade here! We came to 95W and it was time to walk north. Uh oh, there were trees and brush grown up making this path look a little intimidating. While I was beating down the brush with my BARE HANDS (should've brought my machete) my son-n-law ventured a little further down the tracks and found a relatively clear path leading towards our destination. (Up until he joined the family, I got the credit for being the logical thinker in the bunch.) Within 10 meters we came upon a barbedwire fence. It was pretty loose, so no problem holding it apart to crawl through the strands.

Now we were in someone's cow pasture -- without their permission. No cows, no people as far as the eye could see, so "no problem." We headed north a little ways, then east towards our destination. We came upon a second barbedwire fence. My son-in-law jumped the fence. This one was strung pretty tight, we may have a little more trouble sneaking through it. He walked about 25 meters with the GPS receiver and declared he was at the mark. Once the rest of us got through the fence, I set up to take pictures. We had the sun's undivided attention since there were no trees at our exact confluence. We took a few photos and soon became anxious to get out of the sun. We noticed the crawfish holes and took a photo for those who have never seen one, thinking you may get a kick out of their little castles. Apparently this field had been under water for a few weeks (along with much of East Texas) during this past Spring's record setting rains.

We were now wilting from the heat and we were not nearly as excited about our trip out of here, as we were coming in. Upon crossing back through the tight strung barbed wire fence, my pants became a "casualty of war" and suffered a small laceration in the leg. Thankfully, that's all that was snagged! We traced the way back that we came and couldn't get back to the car quickly enough. By the time we reached the car, we were all soaking wet with sweat.

The photos are rather boring since the confluence was rather boring. But, the trip made family (and world) history and we returned home to cook hamburgers and make homemade ice-cream and cobbler made from the fresh peaches we bought at a family owned farm about three miles south of Pittsburg. It was a good day.