“In Wyoming, even when you go to Heaven, you have to go through Denver first,” is an old saying about airline service in the Cowboy State.
Seems like I don’t travel very much anymore – but when I do, I sure run into a lot of old friends – and meet a few new ones, too.
Last weekend featured a whirlwind trip from Wyoming to Omaha to accept a nice award from the National Newspaper Association, and the trip was enlightening to me.
Because of my wife’s health concerns, we just have not flown much in recent years.
Since I have gotten more superstitious in my advancing years, the thought that I could pull off what seemed like a difficult schedule on this trip ended up going flawlessly.
Flying Today
Over the last half century, I have seen just about everything when it comes to commercial aviation.
I was early to the Riverton airport at 4:30 a.m. The regional jet would be nearly full on this trip. Virginia Arbery of Lander was also on the flight. We had both attended the inauguration of President Kyle Washut of Wyoming Catholic College in Lander the night before.
In Denver there were no problems and the next flight to Omaha was full, and again, was on time.
Of course, this is probably considered off-season and the weather was perfect. But so far, my day and this trip were off to a good start.
We old-timers can recall the amazing service the old Frontier Airlines provided last century with those ponderous Convair 580s, but this 2024 version of commercial aviation ended up being excellent, too.
My return flights were also on time. The plane from Omaha to Denver was only half full, which was surprising. In the Denver airport, I ran into Liz Lightner of Lander who was traveling back from Scottsdale with her 83-year-old mom. They were looking for winter accommodations for her.
It was 118 degrees in the Phoenix area and they about cooked. Liz thought it would be fun to rent a Tesla. Not sure she was that impressed.
Once on the small regional jet for the flight to Riverton, my seatmate could barely fit into his space. David Page is a 6-4 dentist from Worland who was a delight to ride with. He has a beautiful family of nine kids and showed me some great photos. He had been to a convention in Las Vegas.
Worland is one of my favorite towns and he raved about what a wonderful life they have made there. He recalled how there had been regular commercial air service in that town for decades, but no more.
Airports like Riverton, Rock Springs, Gillette, and Laramie provide consistent United Air Lines service thanks to large subsidies provided by the state and local governments. Is it worth it? To me, on this day, it sure was.
Seeing Old Friends
Handling my introduction at the Omaha awards banquet last Friday night was an old friend, Matt Adelman, publisher of the Douglas Budget. He is a former president of the national newspaper group and said some nice things. Matt has battled some serious health issues in recent years but was in fine form at this venue.
He has run one of the consistently best newspaper operations in Wyoming for decades.
During my talk to the group, I told them about the best news story I ever covered and the worst one.
The best one was how we exposed how Jeffrey City uranium miners were dying from exposure to radiation before proper safety controls were put into place. With the help of former Sen. Al Simpson and his then-press secretary Stan Cannon, the stories resulted in a bill creating a $100 million trust fund to compensate these men and their families. That was a tough story with a wonderful result.
The worst one was two years later in 1991, when more than a dozen Arapaho Indian males committed suicide. That was horrible to cover.
One of my oldest Wyoming friends, Lovell native Lee Myers (and former Cody Enterprise publisher) now lives in Omaha and joined me for the festivities. Our granddaughter Daylia Benavides and her husband Taylor from Dallas flew up to join the party, too.
Louie Mullen of Buffalo, who has become quite the newspaper baron in recent years, was also there. I first met him when he was in junior high. His parents Tom and Annie Mullen are among the finest newspaper people I have ever known. His dad had been there but was in the ER with a bad infection.
Louie had recently purchased the newspaper in Harlan, Iowa, from Steve and Alan Mores. My first job was there in 1964 working for their dad Leo Mores and editor Dick Gilbert.
And for the third consecutive year, members of Wyoming newspapers won more national awards than any other state.
Same Old Problems
During that afternoon of the convention, I sat in on some round-table forums. Some of the biggest problems were how to keep staff and how to raise revenue. I was in the newspaper business for four decades and a lot of things just do not change.
Omaha was beautiful this time of year. Earlier in the week it had been 91 degrees in my hometown of Lander. It was cooler than that in the heart of Cornhusker country.
At 5:20 a.m. last Friday, I boarded my airplane. Some 41 hours later I was back home at 10:20 p.m. Flawless, indeed.
Bill Sniffin can be reached at: Bill@CowboyStateDaily.com
