Lava Dude — He runs the world's only bed–and–breakfast in an active lava field

Patricia Leigh Brown wrote a fascinating story for the June 30 New York Times about living in the active lava fields of Hawaii's volcanos.

Buried way deep in the continuation of her article was the saga of one Jack Thompson (above), "the ultimate Lava Dude."

It seems Thompson bought a home 30 years ago in the Royal Gardens subdivision on the Big Island.

Kilauea, an active volcano there which continues to erupt, wiped out every house except his, burying the rest under molten lava that now forms a miles–wide field of jagged rock.

Thompson, 55, runs "a bed–and–breakfast of sorts."

Steam billows from underground lava flows about four miles from his home.

"You've reached Jack's Lava House, his voice mail says. "Go with the flow."

Yeah, dude.

To get to Thompson's house, wrote Brown, you have to travel a mile and a half across precarious chutes of lava.

Thompson does so on an old Kawasaki.

"It's a rodeo out here, I'll tell you," he told Brown.

Memo to Kawasaki and whoever makes this guy's tires: sign him up as a spokesperson.

Thompson said he was just putting in the house's last window when the big eruption occurred.

He's planted a lush orchard of fruit trees all around his home.

He's completely off the grid, obviously; a rainwater capture system, solar panels and 12–volt batteries keep him going.

He likes the piece and quiet: "No bugs. No weeds. No cars. No kids. No dogs. No roosters. It's real easy to get used to."

"At night he sits on his deck and watches the show: molten rivers of lava flowing from a vent at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, about four miles from his house, making their way through underground lava tubes toward the ocean, occasionally flaring and flickering like distant bonfires."

He has been evacuated only once, so far, and said he never really wanted to live in a regular neighborhood anyway.

Brown wrote, "He didn't like the neighbors anyway, whom he described as a bunch of crazy surfers. 'I don't surf,' he said. 'Too dangerous.'"

Here's a link to the International Herald Tribune's version of the Times story, just in case.