I’ve got about 90 minutes before my flight from Pocatello to Salt Lake — the first leg of the trip to Manila. Because I don’t want to leave a car here at the airport, I had Nina drop me off before she went to her 8 am meeting. The airport is very quiet, even for Easter Sunday. Sky West (Delta Connection) is now the only airline serving the airport and their only destination from here is Salt Lake. Even the Airport Manager is leaving the airport to take the same job in Idaho Falls. That also doesn’t bode well for this airport.

There are a number of problems with this airport. It was originally an Army Air Force training base in early WWII. So it’s got a couple of long runways, which is a benefit but requiring more maintenance and upkeep cost. It is too far from town and with Pocatello’s abysmal public transportation, there are no buses that come out to the airport.

The airport also serves as an aerial attack base for fighting wildfires. That may come in handy this summer which is likely to be a significant fire year since there was so little snow this past winter. That is, if the air tanker fleet is allowed to fly this year.

I’ve caught a cold. This is the third one this year so far. I’ve come down with a cold just before every big business trip since January. So far this one has been fairly light. Will that last?