Spotlight: The Bear Country

So my last post was solidly about what made things hard. It focused on the “Alaska Problem.” After a couple days of thinking on it, I figured it was probably time to take a look at the things that make it a possibility. Specifically: the people who make it possible to reach for things far off and to let everyone else in on the joke. Let’s spotlight the “Bear Country”.

The Bear Country is the self named group of friends, family, and supporters of mine. They have given me nicknames over the years ranging from “Bear” to “Grizzly” to “Yogi”. Why? Because I am afraid of bears or at least have a rather healthy respect for them. I have a “You don’t eat me, I won’t eat you” agreement. To honor this agreement, I have emphasized bear procedures to anyone going camping with me. Apparently these have become pretty memorable. Or VERY VERY memorable. They have been compared to Dumbledore explaining to 1st years how they will die a horrible death if they walk up the wrong stairs.

Over the years, the “Bear Country” members have found a great number of ways to mess with me. This spotlight will shine a light on some of the best ones. Let’s start out with my Alaskan Bear Encounter. See this bear? Saw this one in Alaska. Was this a natural occurrence? Of course not. My friends managed to convince my mother to buy a “bear watching” excursion while on the cruise. Yep- with friends like these right? And guess what? We saw a bear. Admittedly, the pictures of me with a bear in the background got a lot of cheers from folks back home.

Another truly inspired Bear related prank: My Adventure Hat. I am sure it wasn’t lost on anyone that this Grizzly Bear hat has appeared in all my pictures from adventures since the beginning of the blog. That is in honor of a still unknown prankster who mailed me this hat the week before I went to Yellowstone. It was as hilarious as it was prophetic, given this was the trip where I would have my first Grizzly Bear sighting.

The next shout out goes to my friends at work who, upon finding out about my bear fear, hid HUNDREDS of tiny bears all over my classroom. I found them legitimately EVERYWHERE I went for weeks last December. This all led up to a gifted Tea Pot filled with Bears that read “We wish you a Bear-y Christmas.” And although there has been a slow down in the number of bears found, Seningen has left some random “Bears” labels that he printed stuck in places around my room to remind me that you can never get too comfortable.

Finally there is the daily reminders of my supporters: The memes, the Reels, the videos. The creed “Bears go to Andrew” has been followed so stringently, I decided I needed to count and see how many bears were sent to me in November 2023. 314 is the answer- 314 messages filled with bears. They come in many forms, shapes, and sizes, but the one thing they all have is Bears. Lizzie, the president of this “Bear Country” noted “It’s really rewarding being the leader of a movement whose purpose and mission is so well understood, so universal, that people I’ve never met, never spoken to, understand and practice it perfectly. Bears go to Andrew”.

So whether you are following the blog, travelling with me on adventures, sending me bears on instagram, or just giving me words of encouragement to get out there: Thank you very much for your support! And of course “WELCOME TO BEAR COUNTRY”