#12: [15-Apr-24]

#11: [24-May-20]

#10: [23-Jun-16]

#9: [06-Sep-15]

#8: [03-Feb-13]

#7: [01-Apr-11]

#6: [14-Sep-08]

#5: [21-Sep-06]

#4: [08-Oct-05]

#3: [27-Oct-04]

#1: [21-May-00]

12-Jun-2000 -- Well, there I was with a vacation day and nothing to do but yard work. Declaring freedom from domesticity, I loaded the car with hardware and headed east. Interstate 40 bisects the state of New Mexico and the city of Albuquerque and replaces what was once Rt 66. Except where 66 went through downtown districts, I-40 follows the route of the old Mother Road.

I left the interstate at the eastern-most exit near Moriarty, NM. The route to the confluence went a little east, a little south, and, again, a little east.

As I drove through this arid range land, I watched the digit counters fall and near a windmill and set of corrals I passed the 106° mark. A u-turn and a slow roll on the shoulder of the road brought me to exactly 106° (of course that's plus or minus the Garmin accuracy).

With the camera loaded and the GPS running on AA batts instead of the power cord, I negotiated the 5 strand barbed wire fence. All I had to do was walk about a quarter mile due north to get where I wanted to go.

With a sharp eye out for prairie rattlers I cast around for THE SPOT. It wasn't in the bushes, not near the cactus, nor in the bunch grass. My Mighty Mouse antenna was pulling in signals as hard as it could. Where, oh where, might it be?

And then I found it: the cow pie confluence. The Mouse was sitting on an 12 inch diameter piece of bovine waste product and the GPS III was averaging all zeroes after 520 counts. I was ecstatic!

I took the required photos of the read-out and the cardinal directions. I left behind a surveyor's pin flag with the confluence information:
35° 0.000N
106° 0.000W
06/12/00
WGS 84

You can go check, that cow pie is still there.