Whee, I'm in a tunnel

This morning started with a familiar problem: the RV diesel heater failed to ignite with the dreaded "Error 13". We were able to get a hot shower using battery power, but that takes too much electricity to do most days when "dry camping" without electric hookups. Greg was hopeful he could fix it during our midday fuel stop.

Before we left Homer, we had to return to Stickleback Fish Company for another tub of their smoked salmon dip. It is even better than the one we got at Jerry's Meats and Seafoods in Juneau. Greg waited a few minutes for Stickleback to open; when they did, he asked to buy "another container of salmon crack". It's very good and extremely addictive.

Unlike Monday, the parking lot was full because the bagel shop and cafe next door was open. After buying the "salmon crack", we checked out the bagel shop, and the bagels looked genuinely good. But the line was long and moving slowly, so we left. We just have to imagine that they were legitimate bagels. No bagel score today.

Around midday, we stopped for lunch and shopping at the Fred Meyer grocery store in Soldotna. At least a dozen other RVs were parked in their lot, so Amy parked near them. Next, Greg tried again to start the diesel heater. Since the weather was warmer, the burner started successfully, but not before it billowed a huge cloud of thick diesel smoke. As we walked towards the store, another RV traveler said, "A diesel heater, eh?" After Bob introduced himself, he and Greg shared tales of diesel heaters. Bob also suggested we visit the museum when we get to Whittier.

To drive to Whittier, you have to take the Portage Glacier Highway. You pass Portage Glacier (duh!). You also take the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, a single-lane tunnel that is shared with cars and trains! It is the longest highway tunnel and the longest combined highway/railroad tunnel in North America. The tunnel maintains a schedule for eastbound vehicles, for westbound vehicles and for trains; we had to wait about 30 minutes for our time to drive through the tunnel.

The town of Whittier is small enough that you can walk from one end to the other in about 15 minutes. We parked our RV at the Creekside Campground, then walked to the waterfront. Based on Bob's recommendation, we visited the Prince William Sound Museum. We've visited a number of small museums along the drive, and most were disappointing. This museum, however, was fantastic, with an excellent collection of stories: how Whittier was founded as a deep-water military port, how the tunnel was built, the damage to Whittier in the 1964 Alaska Earthquake, and much more. We spent an hour in the small museum, and Greg could have easily spent another hour there.