My internal alarm went off at 4:50 AM. “No,” I grumbled. “I don’t need to photograph this morning’s freight. I can post the Holbrook series instead. I will just go back to sleep.” But I couldn’t just go back to sleep. I knew this could be my last chance to photograph the train under a nearly full moon for awhile. So, at 5:05, I got out of bed, got dressed, grabbed my gear, headed out and arrived at the tracks right about 6:25. I contemplated a retake of yesterday’s shot with The Clock Tower but no train. I decided instead to go for Lake Lucille while it still has ice cover. I set myself up in an empty parking lot across the highway in a spot where I felt certain I would hear the whistle from at least a mile away, maybe even two or three. As I did not know if the train would arrive in five minutes, fifteen, half an hour, an hour or had maybe come early like it did yesterday and had already passed, I decided to keep Sancho on the ground, linked to my controller, until I heard the whistle. Then I would launch, frame the shot and let the engineer drive the train into it.   The only problem was the Frequent School Bus kept driving by. “I’m not here for the FSB!” I told myself. “I’m here for the train! After the train goes by, I can leave Sancho in the air for awhile and photograph the FSB.”   But it got to be too much. The FSB just kept rolling by. Finally, I decided to launch, get a shot or two of the FSB and then land and resume my wait to hear the whistle. I launched. The FSB came along. I ordered Sancho to take a snap. Immediately, the train silently rolled into sight. I had heard no whistle. Sancho was a little lower than I wanted Sancho to be for the train and I had only a few seconds to make Sancho climb, reframe the pic and shoot. Right after I did, I swung Sancho’s eye this way and that and realized there was a better picture to take than this one.   Tomorrow will be my last day here before I go north. The moon will have waned slightly. It will be higher in the sky. Do I shoot from this same basic scent - if sky is clear - or try another? Photographs courtesy of Bill Hess