Alaska 2009 - Day 7

Well I am a little hung over. Tylenol and water, then back to bed for another hour. I get out of bed around 10am, and go get a mocha, yes they have an espresso machine in this wanna be resort. My objective for the day is to relax and tour the compound. As I am enjoying my coffee a bus of Japanese roll in. This resort seems to be a large tourist attraction for Japan. I guess a little investigation work needs to happen.

I wander around and I see a bunch of half formed inventions. One of them is the same thing I saw in China. It is a hot water heater that sits on the roof of a house or building. The water heats up by recirculation through pipes and eventually getting real hot. This is branded as the “Chena Hot Water” tank but it has a ton of Chinese writing on it. I think that they are the same as what I saw in Chine, just rebranded as Chena. Then I see a pump that pumps water from the creek into a tank that is used for what looks like their gardens. I decide I need a tour, but first I want to relax in the hot springs.

I grab my cargo shorts and flip flops and head over. They give you towels and I head on it. Only adults are allowed in the hot spring s pool, and kids are allowed in the hot tubs and cool pool. The water is hot and does not have that much of a smell. I have been next to hot springs that smell like sulfur, but this one does not. Europeans really do wear speedos, especially the old ones. One end of the pool is too hot. I last about 20 minutes in the heat and feel real relaxed.

I find a tour of the compound and it starts in a couple hours. I do some picture uploading and wait for the tour to start. My companion and I, and four other people are on the tour. The tour guide is not very friendly and it is a quiet five minute walk to a building that starts the tour. She does not say anything. We enter a building and we see the three generators. The tour guide reads the signs on the walls of the building, nobody asks questions. Five minutes later we leave. Off to the green houses.

The green houses are very interesting; all of the vegetables that they serve on site are grown in their green houses, all year long. Even during the cold winter. The temperature difference last year was over 80 degrees. The green houses’ are warmed by the sun light and they pipe the hot spring water through the floor to keep the building warm year round. Everything is grown hydroponically and looks really good.

That is the end of the tour, what a letdown. Such a cool place and a boring tour guide. I find a DVD of the place and I ask someone to put it on the community center TV. The DVD is incredible, not the quality but the information and descriptions on how things work. The owner Bernie is a real inventor guy and he is trying to make the resort completely off the grid, electrically and most of the food. He even wants to produce enough power to produced hydrogen and power all of the vehicles.

The rest of the day is spent walking the grounds, and grabbing a bite to eat. It sounds boring, but the purpose is to relax, not to explore.