After a very cold start to the day, I’m now in the Portland, Oregon Airport waiting for the next flight on this trip to Manila. The next stop is Narita Airport in Japan and the plane leaves in a little more than two hours from now. I’m in the Northwest Airlines Lounge which has huge picture windows looking over — the passenger concourse. We can watch the people walk to their gate or from the gate to baggage claim. There aren’t many people here. Perhaps that means the flight to Narita will be not-so-full? That definitely wasn’t the case flying here. The airplane from Pocatello to Salt Lake City (a 29 passenger turboprop) was full. The flight from Salt Lake City to Portland (a 48 passenger regional jet) had one empty seat — across the aisle from me. The SkyWest terminal in Salt Lake City was just mobbed. I think everyone wanted out of town! They must be trying to escape the cold weather. And cold it has been — although my brother Perry can claim the “We’re colder than you” prize.

Portland is a little milder — the temperature here when we arrived was 35 degrees. The sun was shining and we make a beautiful approach to the airport right past Mt. Hood. The airplane was about even with the top of the mountain and it seemed like one could reach out and touch it. However, the guy on the left side of the airplane by the window really liked the view making it impossible for me to catch more than a few glimpses of the mountain, let alone get a picture of it. The airport here is not nearly as busy as the Salt Lake airport was earlier this morning. Maybe everyone who wanted to get out of Portland has left already? Or maybe, because it’s Presidents Day, they’re taking a holiday? The long day has started OK. It helps when the flights are on time. The security folks in Pocatello did their usual check — take everything out of everyone’s carryon and check it all for possible explosives. Vigilance is at is highest at that airport!

Earlier last week the Idaho State Journal, the local Pocatello newspaper, had a front-page article about a guy who had been staying at one of the dumpy motels in town who had been arrested by the FBI for conspiracy to commit a terrorist act. He was allegedly working on a plot to blow up an oil refinery in Wyoming. That meant, of course, that homeland Security has to be even more vigilant in Pocatello. For me, that meant taking everything out of my computer bag as well as the small carryon rollerbag, wiping everything down with the explosive-sensitive wipes and checking those in the machine, and then putting all items individually through the x-ray machine. I’m really glad there were only 29 people getting on the airplane! On the other hand, by the time we were all checked, we could all feel safe with our fellow passengers. It didn’t count that about 20 of the people on the airplane work at the same company I work at and I knew them all…..