Looking for Bears

In July, we visited Billie Jo’s family in Ponzer in eastern North Carolina. Every time is an adventure. All of the aunts, uncles and cousins live at and operate Riverside Campground. It is a wonderful, sweet place full of Tom Sawyer fun and Huckleberry characters. The kids zoom around on bikes and golf carts, stage mini-parades and swim in the black silty waters. The excitement this time was a mother black bear and three cubs that had been seen frolicking in a nearby field. Of course everyone wanted to see and Grandaddy Bill was happy to oblige, piling 13 of us from 2 to 60 years of age in the back of his battered Nissan pickup. The bears were fascinating, of course, but what captured my attention was the kids, thrilled at seeing the wildlife out of a zoo in full view literally in their back yard. The expressions were priceless and inspired my sketchbook.