Begich Towers, Inc (BTI) houses our current home on the road, aka our affectionately nicknamed mini condo “The Bunker”. A quick catch-up for those of you who have fallen behind…weeks of chilly rain, soggy camping, grumpy me, new little mini condo (aka The Bunker) in Whittier, Alaska where we will be catching the ferry south, which is a cool old building built to withstand the Cold War now turned condos when the Army pulled out which now house most of the 200+ residents in town and the ameneties they need. Phew…everyone caught up?
Begich towers in pictures. (The plural ‘towers’ is correct. BTI is actually 3 buildings spaced approximately 8 inches apart to withstand Alaska’s earthquakes, including the big one in 1964 and the resulting wall of water 104 ft high. It is also built to withstand a nuclear blast…remember it was built during the Cold War.) Okay, pictures:
Begich Towers (BTI) in all her freshly painted glory! The town is repainting her and adding some color to spice up the ugly Cold War beige. Very nice job Bob and crew! I am taking this picture from near the harbor. Notice the rail yard between me and BTI? No problem, there is a handy tunnel that goes under the rail yard to connect the harbor with downtown…zoom in and see if you can find the sign pointing to the tunnel.Darrin in the tunnel…it is a very big rail yard.I guess our reputation as being a rowdy crowd preceded us. Check out our neighbors?Down the hall is the main offices (our doorway is at the end of the hallway).Around the corner from The Bunker is the post office (the post master’s parents just happen to be from Etna, NH!, once again it is a small world), and the little grocery market with the open sign.And at the other end of the hall is the laundromat, ATM, and the Notary who also happens to be the town sign maker who made all the lovely wooden signs and owns a neat little gift shop down by the harbor!Downstairs is the Community Church and…yes, another underground tunnel…this one connects BTI with the school! No cold walks to school when it is below zero and there is 12 feet of snow! Also in the basement is a room full of freezers. Most, we’ve bee told, are full of fish, shrimp and crabs and whatever was bought the last big shopping trip to Anchorage.
A lot of articles on the web call Whittier “The Community under one Roof”.
