After three and a half years as director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Vic Reynolds said he has gained a new appreciation for the size of his home state.

“I’ve seen the entire state a couple of times,” Reynolds said in a phone interview one early morning last week while driving the 30 miles from his home in Marietta to the GBI headquarters on Panthersville Road in Decatur. “I didn’t realize how really big the state is—until you get out and start going from corner to corner. Geographically, I think it’s the largest state east of the Mississippi River.” And he noted Georgia has more counties—159—than any other state except Texas, which has 254.