19-Feb-2004 -- Cheryl and I were on a cross country dash from San Jose to Atlanta. Emma, my 94 Explorer, was packed to the gills as I was in the midst of a move from west to east coast. We had four days to go more than 2500 miles. To break the monotony of a long drive I had mapped out a number of geodashing dashpoints and a couple confluences to visit along the way. The fourth and last day of our mad dash began in Conway, AR.

Traveling on Interstate 40, we reached longitude 91West approximately halfway between Little Rock and Memphis a little before noon. The previous visitors, Beck and Turner, visited this confluence in early spring 3 years earlier and reported muddy roads on the southern approach. Although Emma has 4WD, packed as she was we didn’t want to take any chances, so we started with an approach from the north. We exited I-40 just north of Palestine, AR and went north to Slonkers Mill Road. Traveling back west on Slonkers Mill, it was first paved and then turned to dirt. After about 4 miles and just before 91W we turned south toward the confluence. About a quarter of a mile north of 35N we encountered a chain across the road barring further progress in Emma. It was probably just as well because recent rains had left major mud puddles in the road beyond. We would walk from here. On our right was a wooded area bounded by an electric fence. We walked beyond the woods to a large open field now fallow. We reached an irrigation ditch (Photos #2 to the north and #4 to the south) with field access roads on either side that lay very close to 91W. Naturally my first choice, the road to the east, was wrong, so I retraced my steps the 100+ yards or so back to end of the ditch at the wooded area and returned to the confluence on the west side. Being out in the open (Photos #1 to the west and #3 to the east) with an EPE on my GPSr of less than 4 meters, I easily got all zeros (Photo #5) just a few yards west of the ditch in the muddy field (Photo #1). Curiously, Beck and Turner found the confluence on the east embankment of the ditch, a difference that is probably just within the sum of the errors of our readings. With that we returned to Emma and headed east for a late evening arrival in Atlanta.