like going to the lake

Let's just say nothing is as easy as it seems. We had this science experiement for Abi and Daniel today. It is great. They are supposed to grow bacteria by collecting pond water into four different jars with different stuff in them (egg yolk, rice, dirt, grass). I had a perfect spot picked out, a beautiful body of water not far from here that might be a flooded rock quarry. I have run past this geographic feature numerous times, and I was sure it was the perfect plan.

After days of building up the "big bike ride" to my students, preparing them for steep hills, rocky terrain, aching muscles, burning lungs, and the like, we took a fifteen minute ride across a potato field to the quarry. We stashed our bikes in waist-high grass and headed for the water's edge. Problem. I had never noticed the twenty foot wide creek separating the road from the pond. Nowhere to cross, it seemed. What to do. We rode around for twenty minutes or so looking for some crossing. We were so close. There had to be a bridge or something. Nothing. So...