Bear!

Johnvano.com has been stagnant while its author vacationed in the mountains of Georgia. Now I am in Northeast Florida--just a few minutes before we head to the beach.

We stayed at Unicoi State Park (part of the state park tour) for a family reunion on my wife's side. One day we turned right out of Unicoi and headed toward Hiawasee where my wife spotted a live, nude bear fishing in the stream off to the right. I whirled the car around, stopped in the middle of the winding pass, and snapped the picture you see here. We all (except Marshall) watched him climb out of the water, slink under a fence post, and head up a mountain road into the woods. What I think you see here is the bear's back leg as he makes it to the woods. Look between the two righter-most trees in the foreground. Sorry, this is the best I could do--I was driving.

The next day, there was a lot of commotion at the uncles' compound (they were not roughing it, staying in a seven-bedroom manse in the town of Helen, complete with Wii, pool, a handful of big screen TVs, etc.) when two bears were found digging in the garbage next to our van. It was nearing dusk and still bright out. Everyone rushed outside, but the bears ran off into the woods. A half dozen of the guys saw the bears, but I was not among their number. About six of us wandered toward the woods to get a glimpse, but were chided back to the house. Paula was teased because she worried that her precious van may have been scratched.