The Bottle Millionaire?

If you ever go out to Arizona, one of the chief attractions that you want to see....is the Grand Canyon.  Now, there is this interesting aspect of traveling around Arizona....your need for water.

I spent almost four years living there, and came to realize early on, that you always needed a bottle of water with you in the car.  Even in March....temperatures around the state hang near 90 degrees already.  Even up at the Canyon area....temperatures in July can be fairly close to a hundred degrees.

This week, the folks who run the park at the Grand Canyon....decided that they had a problem and they had to fix it.  There were too many plastic bottles around the roads and parking areas.  So they've banned the sale of water in plastic bottles within the park.

There will be around a dozen "water-stations" placed within the Canyon park area.  You can drive up....pull  out your plastic bottle that you have with you, and refill it.  This is being done....to force you into changing your habits (at least the park folks think this).

It's a curious thing.  I read on and checked various sources.  The concessionaire business in the park can still sell Pepsi, Coke and Mountain Dew (in bottles or cans).  They still offer Lipton Ice Tea, and forty-four different diet, pretend-to-diet, or almost-diet drinks.  And you can still apparently buy lots of coffee in small or large plastic cups.  Just no water in bottles.

It's an odd change to the way folks arrive to see the Canyon.  When you go back to the 1800s and how just about everyone had a canteen that they dragged around with them and they all sipped pretty lousy-tasting water (mostly because the age of the canteen, and the general source of water in the first place).

We have become accustomed to Wal-Mart water, Piggly Wiggly water, Alaskan glacier water, Canadian water, almost-Sulfer-Springs water, purified water, gaseous bubbles water, French glacier water (my favorite), diet water, and even peachy-tasting water.  I'm guessing that the Canyon folks just won't be able to offer this variety at their various water-stations, and folks will be dismayed.

So in the weeks to come....this guy is going to open up a water shop about a mile outside the Grand Canyon park....called H20-Plus.  He'll sell one hundred and sixty-eight different varieties of water, all in plastic bottles.  Folks will buy it by the case....because of the sign out front...."last stop for real water before the Canyon".  My guess is that the Canyon management folks won't notice much of a change with fewer bottles laying around roads and parking lots.  They may cite statistics or just smile to say it's a evolving thing, but no matter what....their plan will be a success.  And the water dude outside the park?  He'll be a millionaire within two years....just selling stupid fizzy water glacier water, in plastic bottles.

Only in America.