Looking Back East

It's a hazy day here in Wenatchee. Grit-gray smoke from the north hangs over Badger Mountain so that the sky is not quite blue but rather a light shale. Wild fires. Not 50 miles away, acres of land are burning, the smoke limiting the view to no more than 2 or 3 miles up the Columbia Valley.

This time of year, there's always smoke somewhere on the horizon. It's hot and dry. Every small plant that isn't watered regularly is dead so that fires spread quickly.

Since I moved here a year ago, there have been five fires close enough that I could see the smoke from our balcony. There was one where I could see the flames on the mountains to the east of us. It's an odd feeling for someone from Illinois, who grew up in corn and soybean fields. This time of year in Illinois, you could douse plants in gasoline and light them, and you wouldn't burn more than an acre, probably.

I guess I miss Illinois. It's an odd thing to say living here in the moutains, where you could potentially go skiing and water skiing on the same day in late spring and late fall. The surrounding mountains offer so many different beautiful views, especially when they are compared to the plain old Plains. And with the second cleanest lake in the country not far away, it's hard to yearn for the muddy Mississippi.

But there are small things that I miss, like being able to watch every Cubs game on TV and humidity. Humidity! It's so damn dry here. And of course there are friends and family in Illinois that I don't get to see often enough.

Living here, though is an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. It's a beautiful place, and we are so close to some of the most beautiful terrain in the country. I've always loved nature and being outdoors. Maybe I can use this blog to share some of our trips into the mountains. We'll see, I guess.

Best,
Brad