Out of Chicago: Travel Delays & Bag Examination
Waiting in Charlottesville, VA, airport...
Last Thursday I awoke to a rainy morning but little did I know how much weather was going to impact me today! I made the 75-mile drive from our home in Lynchburg to the Charlottesville, VA Airport in good time but as I approached the airport my phone rang. American Airlines letting me know my 9:25 AM flight had been delayed until 10. Not a big deal. By the time I got to the Economy Lot - which was full - and started for the Long Term Lot, another call. American again. My flight had been cancelled and they had put me on a 6:13 PM flight. Great! No sense spending the day at the airport, so I turned into a short term lot so I could go to the counter and see if I had any options. I didn't, so I got my boarding pass and left the airport to find a place to have a proper breakfast.
The bad part of this delay was that I had volunteered to help with an evening workshop being given by two virtual friends, Mike Boening and Jamie MacDonald. Selfishly, I was disappointed, too, because I was looking forward to learning what they would be teaching, i.e., using the Live Composite feature on my Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera! Once at the restaurant, I wrote to the workshop coordinator that I wouldn't get to Chicago in time for the Thursday evening workshop.
Vanquish SKITCH-12 bag wrapped in Retrospective 30 rain cover.
After breakfast, I headed to a nearby library branch to pass the time. Lots of rain so when I had secured a table in the library, I took out the rain cover that came with my Think Tank Retrospective 30 bag and tried out on the Vanquest SKITCH-12 bag, which, in its medium configuration, is about the same size as the 30. Since it was the first time I had even taken the rain cover from its built-in pocket, I had to figure out how it was to be used. After some struggling (and, yes, a YouTube video!), I got it attached over the bag. Brilliant! A very handy addition.
My next time-passer was to take things out of my two bags and figure out what I had put where and, possibly do some rearranging. Hopefully, I'll use these two bags often now, because I have been changing bags so much I haven't built up the muscle memory to just know where something is. This is a good trip to test them, though, as I'll unload them both before I go out on an all-day workshop with Bryan Peterson tomorrow. Then, each day will present differing camera gear needs so I may be changing some of the things I want to have with me. The basics, however, should stay pretty much the same, though. The SKITCH-12 as a "travel to destination" bag was stuffed and in its medium configuration. However, as my everyday bag I am hoping to be able to reduce it to its "short" configuration and it should be a nice, manageable bag.
I repacked my bags, grabbed some lunch, and returned to the airport to wait for my plane. Further delayed because of lightning, we finally got off and onto Chicago and my second Out of Chicago Photography Conference!
