one thing nice...

...about having to travel throughout the state is the scenery.

When I leave Olympia I usually take the major interstate freeway, I-5 to my "jump-off" point for all points east, west, north or south of home.

That means I leave bi-polar brother in law, his truck, his van (all shown in the picture... left) and his troubles behind for a bit. "The Wife" and I talk on our cell phones regularly while I'm gone so, in essence I'm not abandoning her with all of the challenges associated with him.

Besides, he's still in the county jail awaiting "trial" and he's being taken care of so we have a bit of a break from him and his "illnesses". He goes to trial on the 19th of this month but I'll be damned surprised if he's actually tried.

Anyway, as I travel over the Cascade Mountains towards eastern Washington the scenery changes dramatically.

The huge blocks of conifer forests consisting of Douglas Fir, Hemlock, Western Red Cedar, Spruce, Pine and mixed deciduous trees coupled with the canopied brushes give way to Larch, Ponderosa Pine, Ash, Aspen and Cottonwoods growing on grass and sage covered hillsides.

The United State's Pacific Northwest region... particularly Washington and Oregon are a bit unique in their contrasting "sides". Draw a line north/south down the crest of the Cascade Mountain range... anything to the left of this line is the west half... anything to the right of this line is the east half. Hence Western and Eastern Washington. The Cascade Mountains provide a "rain shadow" effect for the western half... causing the storms blowing onshore from the Pacific Ocean to dump much of their moisture onto the western forests before passing over to the more arid east side.

In short, the western half of Washington State is known as the wet side of the state. The weather is wetter but the temperatures are far more moderate.

Eastern Washington gets the hot, arid summers and the cold, bitter, dry and snowy winters much like Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Montana. In essence, from one extreme to the other...

So, why am I telling you this? Well, because Eastern Washington has colder, drier winters and longer, hotter, drier summers.

The wildland fires that get started over there tend to get much larger, much faster and are very, very dangerous. Eastern Washington accounts for the bulk of the huge, destructive wildland fires in this state each year.

...and that's why I travel so much in this job.

Although these "bigger" fires occur primarily in the late spring through early fall there's still a lot of work that needs to be done on many of them well into and through the following winter.

Information needs to be gathered, confirmed. Evidence needs to be analyzed, new "leads" need to be corroborated or eliminated...

...follow-up work has to be completed.

It's my job to oversee this process... the entire investigation process from the investigator's initial call out through the investigation to it's eventual culmination. I ensure any follow up investigations that need to occur, in fact do occur. If they don't, for whatever reason... or if there's questions I have relating to the investigation I hit the road and poke around as well.

...it's a pretty simple job...

...that takes me down some pretty interesting back country roads.

Yeah... I love this job, this state. The puzzles of the job are challenging, provoking, enlightening and the scenery is fantastic.

When the moment begins too dull... the puzzle nears it's end... the scenery starts to bore all I have to do is wait a bit... it'll change... it always has.

I really have no idea why I posted this piece aside from the fact that I woke up too early this morning and simply felt the urge.

There I go, bragging up the state again!

Damn... gotta quit drinking coffee so late at night.

...oh yeah, and wear clothes when you fry bacon... damaging effects if you don't!

...damaging.