Delayed Freight

If one must experience the delays of travel, I can't think of a nicer environment for it than a sleeper car on an Amtrak train. We're running more than three hours late, which is not a problem, as we had left today's schedule quite open. Our seats are comfortable, and it's very refreshing to watch the scenery dawdle past the window.

While riding, I've been experimenting with the features of my new camera, and also with a photo finishing technique called High Dynamic Range, or HDR, photography. You can see some examples in the HDR pool on Flickr, and at the bottom of that page you can find information about HDR and the tools that support the technique.

I intend to post pictures supporting my blog posts, but I finally came to the conclusion that I had better at least post a text message, because photo finishing is one of those tasks that can take as much time as you have, and then some.

We're just a few minutes out of Elkhart, and it's (normally) a 20 minute ride from there to our destination station, South Bend. However, today the rails have been congested with freight traffic, apparently beyond the normal load. We just heard an announcement that the Amtrak train from New York is stopped at the station in front of us, and we'll pull in as soon as they leave.

We're at the Elkhart station now, so we need to start thinking about being ready to leave the train in the next half hour or so. Once we get to South Bend, we'll take a taxi to the airport, where all the car rental agencies are located. We managed to get in touch with Vicki's first-grade teacher, and we plan to visit her sometime today. Beyond that, I'm hoping for a leisurely day of picture taking in parks, or something similar.

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