Gov. Inslee pets service dogs Huckleberry and Huey who attended a bill signing with Darly Abbot of Olympia.

OLYMPIA -- Gov. Jay Inslee might want to think about making more trips across the mountains to Eastern Washington.

Back from Tuesday's sojourn to Dayton, Starbuck and Palouse Falls State Park, the governor was in an especially chipper and talkative mood at his daily bill signing ceremony with plenty of East Side anecdotes.

Signing a bill for better management of the Milwaukee Road rail corridor, Inslee asked Rep. Matt Manweller,R-Ellensburg, the sponsor, if that wasn't also the John Wayne Trail. Yes, said Manweller, at which point the governor launched into an explanation of how Wayne learned lots about acting from Yakima Canutt, a fact he learned on a poster during the trip. Canutt, who did teach Wayne that rolling walk and was his stunt double in several films, was born in Colfax.

A bill to expand the authority of Fish and Wildlife officers to order people to produce identification and have fishing or hunting gear inspected would be welcome news to the mayor of Starbuck, who owns a tackle shop, he said. And he had the best burger of his governorship at the Rawhide Bar and Grill in that town.

One of the highlights of the trip, he said,  was signing the bill to make the falls the official state waterfall surrounded by students from Washtucna Elementary School, who came up with the idea and with good teachers turned it into a successful multi-grade project.

Inslee also signed bills outlawing involuntary servitude by coercion, and  legalizing growlers -- the large bottles that can now be used to take cider home from bars and breweries, not the four-legged kind he's petting in the photo. 

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