oil refinery field trip

I have been homeschooling for two decades. The best part of homeschooling is the field trips. Recently we took a field trip to the oil refinery. I felt like I was on another planet. The planet had white steam whooshing from long rusty pipes and flames spurting from long tubes. This planet was constructed of concrete and metal. This planet had intertwining layers of pipes stretching and bending past my view. It had tall towers surrounding squat towers. It did not feel like the earth I know. I spend so much effort digging in the soil, watering plants, feeding the chickens, making compost, harvesting vegetables, cooking food; doing things that feel like they are connected with the earth. The oil refinery was a different earth, one of pipes and flames and steam and towers. Yet I use gasoline. We were guided around that alien planet by two wonderful (and recognizably human) tour guides and it was a fascinating, if disturbing, field trip.