Life is full of adventures - some good, some bad, some minor and some major, but adventures, nonetheless.

What started out this past weekend as a harmless "joke" with a couple of friends, ended up being a day-long adventure that had a little of everything needed to make it one of the most fun-filled, and memorable events of my 43 years.

A day-long excursion on Dale Hollow Lake with a couple of good friends was filled with excitement, planning, stalking and adrenaline rushes - not to mention adventure.

We went on a Gator hunt - caught the gator, lost the gator, caught it again, lost it again - and finally had to go home exhausted, but at the same time, satisfied that none of us had ever had a day quite like this one before - nor would we likely ever again.

The Gator Tale is circulated

For the past several months now, rumors have been circulating about an alligator-like creature having been spotted on Dale Hollow Lake, and while most of the tales put the "critter" in the vicinity of an area known as "Cope Hollow", near the Kentucky-Tennessee border and just across the lake from Dale Hollow Lake State Park, it was a somewhat unbelievable tale to many.

Even with some "fuzzy" photos that surfaced a couple of months ago on the internet that could have possibly been a photo of a small alligator like creature on a log, that could have just as possibly been taken on Dale Hollow Lake, without seeing the creature for myself, there was a strong doubt that what we actually had was a photo of a rotten log that resembled a small alligator.

In other words, the proof was fuzzy, at best.

As the spring and summer progressed, the "gator tale" continued to surface from time to time, with reported spottings and the usual logical explanation that the animal was most likely someone's pet that had simply grown too large for it's cage, and was released into Dale Hollow.

A warm climate animal, if there was a small alligator in Dale Hollow, it would surely die over the upcoming winter, and from time to time, an additional part of the story would surface that made it even more unbelievable - that being of reported spottings of the "gator" last summer and fall, meaning the warm climate invader had actually survived what was one of the harshest winters we've had in Clinton County for the past several years.

Couldn't be true. The gator tale had to be just another version of the "Dale Hollow Monster" or "Lady in the Window" folklore that I've heard all my life around the lake.

No gators here, despite the fuzzy internet photos.

Accomplices to the Adventure

This is where the story might begin to get somewhat hard to believe, so we'll just be up front at this point and say that while those of us involved in this Gator Adventure realize that we have been known for our fun-filled antics over the years, and when together, our reputation for being "serious" isn't the best.

My longest friendship has been that of nearly 40 years with Allen Smith, now a Vice-President with the Bank of Clinton County, and one of my "cohorts in crime" from our grade-school years through high school and for the past 25 years of our post-high school adult life.

There isn't anything we haven't done together, especially if it sounded like fun and might make for a good story later.

One of our specialities is pulling jokes, and while the victim of these jokes are more often than not each other, we have been known to "gang-up" on an unsuspecting victim from time to time, which is how Saturday's adventure began.

The joke begins - early Saturday

While spending the weekend on the lake, we were summoned early Saturday to make a short trip to Wisdom Dock to pick up another good friend, Fred Groce, who was yet another member of the CCHS Class of 1976 and has spent countless days and nights around us, on and off the lake, relaxing, working on projects and usually having fun on the weekends.

After picking Fred up in Smith's aluminum fishing boat, the plan for the day was briefly discussed and it seemed that Smith had put together an idea that sounded like a lot of fun.

Having obviously rolled this joke around in his head for some time now, and with the "Dale Hollow Gator Tale" still being circulated from one end of the lake to the other, Smith had made a brief visit into town during his lake vacation, to purchase some small, plastic alligators about a foot long.

With a screw gun in the boat, we decided how much fun it would be to attach one of these plastic gators to a log in the area where the gator was supposedly now living.

Then we'd go back to the cabin, laugh about our most recent escapade and figure out what to do with the rest of our Saturday.

The "joke" didn't last but a couple of seconds.

"Boys - there the x!se!wxx#ech is"

Traveling up the small fingerling of Dale Hollow Lake we refer to as Cope Hollow, we passed a couple of boaters and waved at a few houseboat groups along the shore as we traveled to the very end of the narrow area where our plan was to come together.

Smith said he had previously searched out and found the "log" that was in the internet picture and it was there that our plastic gators would find their new home.

As we trolled toward the bushes, downed trees and logs in the end of the cove, I remember thinking it did in fact look kind of swampy here and just a little spooky as well.

With the log just a few feet in front of us, Smith stood up and began reading his gear, reaching for a plastic gator, his screw gun and a couple of decking screws.

As Freddie and I looked ahead at the approaching target log, it was Smith who made the statement that would change our plans for the remainder of the day.

"Boys" then came a silent period that seemed like it lasted for several seconds before being followed by the words "there the x!se!wxx#ech is."

Fred and I both looked toward the log that Allen had us drifting toward, and the silence that filled the air for the next several seconds was almost deafening - sure enough - there the x!se!wxx#ech was!

We began a scramble inside that small boat, and for the life of me, I can't remember what any of us was reaching for or trying to do, but I'm sure the scene could have been a fantastic video on how "not" to act in a small fishing boat.

Smith dropped the plastic gators, as well as the screw gun, which luckily fell inside the boat, and quickly grabbed his digital camera, began clicking away as Freddie and myself continued to walk over each other and make our own excited exclamations about what lay in front of us - on the very log we were about to use for a well-planned joke.

There he was, about four feet in length, brightly colored, slithering off the log and into the water as he headed into a brushy area - probably to get away from these three idiots in the boat who were causing all kinds of commotion and probably were interrupting his early morning sun nap.

Sure enough - as it slowly swam in front of us, using its long tail and four small legs - it was an alligator.

More jumping - more running around in the boat, and as Smith moved to the front of the vessel for a closer look, I grabbed the camera and began snapping more photos.