We hiked across a cow pasture and descended a steep hill to the banks of the Dismal. Yes the hike was a little dismal, but the river valley was absolutely beautiful.

Here we got to see the true differences between ground water and river water. Right next to the river was a natural spring that flowed down into the river. It looked like a small blue pool. We tested the ph and temperature of the water from both the pool and the river and found that indeed they were not from the same source. This was truly remarkable to see two bodies of water a foot away from each other with such different characteristics.

One of our fondest memories of the trip was fearless Dave jumping into the pool to measure its depth. What seemed to be no more than a foot deep turned out to be around ten feet in depth! We were amazed to discover that the spring forced Dave to float and made it nearly impossible to put his feet down - a pool you could never drown in? He tried to coax some of us to join him, but we settled for wading in the Dismal.

This stop gave us lots of information regarding ground water vs. river water. This would be an AWESOME field trip, yet probably impossible for the majority of us. Students could collect water samples from your area and test for differences.

We had a beautiful view of the sand hills before we were asked to leave the very, private, exclusive, world famous golf course. We think we saw Michael Jordan teeing off on the sixteenth hole, but it was not verified.

We weren't quite ready for what we were about to see when we reached the ranch. Here is a true research lab, complete with cows with fistulas, hundreds of red, white, and blue bowls containing cow dung in the refrigerators, paritally-digested dehydrated grass, and cows wearing depends. We never imagined the "dirty" work of cow research.

Seriously, the global research done at this facility is incredible. Some of the projects include ranching, calving, and breeding in the sand hills, cattle production, research on alfalfa, and monitoring water. The majority of us had no idea this type of research existed, and flabbergasted at the impact their studies make. This experience Awas a great education for teachers and will enable us to share the the knowledge with our students. There may be an agricultural research center close-by that may be able to provide information or programming for students.

Due to popular demand, we made a brief, nonscheduled stop to Car Henge right outside of Alliance. There we toured the unique automobile version of Stone Henge. Jim, Mike, John, and Ron honored the group with a traditional summer solstice dance a day late. Some of us were more excited about this stop than others, but everyone survived.

Another brief, unscheduled, but must-do stop was Chimney Rock. No tour of Nebraska would be complete without seeing the most famous landmark of pioneer history.

We ended the day in the traditional "ole" Nebraska way - with a ride in a covered wagon, a game of horseshoes, a chuck wagon meal, and songs by the fire. This outfitter near Baird really knows how to do it up right.

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