alaska

i've finally arrived in alaska and i was greeted with some bad news. i am going to be working out of whittier, a small port an hour south of anchorage. whittier is a uniquely isolated town (like many here in alaska) because it can only be reached by boat or through a tunnel that passes through maynard mountain. the anton anderson memorial tunnel is the second longest combined rail and highway tunnel in north america and yes for some strange reason we alaskans are very proud of that fact. this means that the 2.5-mile long tunnel is used for eastbound traffic, westbound traffic, and the alaska railroad. it was originally built in 1943 and was used as a rail tunnel until 2000 when construction was completed, allowing motor vehicles to use it as well. obviously, there is a schedule to ensure that the one-way tunnel does not cause any accidents: it is opened for 30 minutes at a time to allow traffic from one direction, then the other, and then 3 times a day for the train to pass through.

now this is not the bad news, this is the quirkiness about whittier that people like and tourists think is quaint. the bad news is that the road to whittier is blocked by a rock slide. it happened two weeks ago and the road still hasn't been cleared. road crews are now concerned about another potential rock slide and are beginning to blast the mountain face to trigger the fall so that they can get it all cleaned up at once. this isn't going to be an access issue for whittier residents or businesses because the railroad is still running; it wasn't affected by the slide and is offering free service to whittier. but with the limited access, we won't get much tourist traffic which is bad bad bad for business. so i'm just hoping that the road crews get it cleared as soon as possible so i can make some money. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is not foreshadowing to the rest of my summer...