For years I have reminisced about my brief time living in Pocatello, Idaho, and have thought about going back just to look around. So last month I decided to go take a look.

I couldn’t have picked better weather: crystal clear skies, not too warm and the winds, both on the surface and aloft, were dead calm; that combination made the ride as smooth as silk.

The trip was relatively short-a little over 4 hours including one stop for fuel in Cedar City, Utah. But the scenery was amazing: red rock mountains, fall colors, the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake.

Even though it’s been 35 years since I last flew out of PIH, the basic airport layout hasn’t changed. But somebody has spent a lot of money on airport improvements: a new tower; lots of modern new hangars, acres of well paved and well maintained ramp space and lots of planes on the ramp including several business class jets.

And of course I had to get into a car and drive past the old house. Although the house still looked great with a new roof, new siding and lots of landscape changes, the neighborhood itself looked kind of tired and that was a bit of a letdown. Oh well, at least I finally made the trip.

I grabbed a sandwich at the grocery store and checked into the Motel 6. The following morning was cold, really cold, but I gassed up the plane at the crack of dawn and retraced the route back to Palm Springs.

Crossed one more item off the bucket list.