The Real Swamp People

       It's that time of year again! Yep, you guessed it, GATOR SEASON! For those of you who are not familiar with the way things are done down here in the South; let me explain. We have two weekends dedicated to Gator Hunting in the month of August. The hunting must be done between 8pm and 6am. When I first was introduced to this wild hunting sport, I'm not going to lie, I was secretly terrified! Please do not misunderstand me I love a great adventure and I love hunting but the thought of going out in a bass boat in the pitch black night, to look for the biggest gators we could find sounded a little insane!
      Just to recap on a little history, the first time I had heard about this was the end of 2008. My dad is a thrill seeker, I honestly believe the only thing he really fears is God himself. To this day I still feel sorry for guys that wanted to date me when I was growing up! Guess that's why I only have had 2 serious relationships in my life, Justin and now Blake, they are brave men! =)  I say all of this to say that right after the accident in 2008 my dad started talking about how he wanted to go Alligator Hunting, it was something he had never done. I'm not sure how it is for others who have experienced tragedy but when things like that happen you want to hold on to memories while at the same time you want to escape the things that seem to always have a memory. So this escape, this something new for our family just happened to be hunting crazy huge, wild animals that could kill you with one bite! I was not shocked by this new adventure/near death experience my dad wanted to try out; however, I wondered how it could be done. He put in for a tag and soon learned that he had been drawn for this hunt! He was pretty pumped to say the least! Dad started gearing up and getting ready like he does for most hunts he takes but this was much different than others. As he would go out to look for the glaring red eyes every night in the boat, I too became curious about this game. Now I have to admit and I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I am a daddy's girl, and along with this I also take after his competitive side. I can not stand to be left out or to think I'm too "girlie" to take on a new challenge. So naturally his trusty side kick soon joined him, me!
         This season sadly does not take place in the cold but in the dead heat of summer, I always get countless bug bites and big dark circles under my eyes from the lack of sleep as we hunt all night. The first season of Gator Hunting on the night the monster was caught it was raining and I voted I would stay home out of the weather (yes, as Allen would have said I was being a sissy).My sister in law Jessica had also been joining us for some hunting. But that night we were both gone and from what I heard when my dad butt called me while he was on the boat with our Pastor and His other best friend, Ricky, they had the time of their life. I had yet to see an alligator caught so you can imagine the shock when I heard my dad tell his buddies, " Guys hold him still, he's not dead yet, let me jump down here in the water and cut his vertebrae with my knife!"Yes, those were the words I heard!WILD!        

         The next year came along and Jessica and I were determined we would get our chance. Can you believe we both drew gator tags! We talked to so many people who had been putting in for years and could not get drawn. As we giggled our way in the line with tons of burly men, we picked up our tags and took our seats at the briefing we had to attend. We were so excited! I think we deep down thought our guys would be proud of us for sticking together and for also doing something they would have been so pumped to do themselves. We loaded in the boat for year two of gator hunting. We hunted so hard but my dad was determined he wanted us to have the trophy gators, so nothing was a keeper. The last night we had to hunt rolled around as we wondered how in the world are we going to get not one but two gators in one night! To our surprise we did it! I honestly feel like God gave them to us! We snatched the first one up so easy and moved right on to the second. They were huge, both about 10-12 feet long. We loaded them in the back of Blake's truck and then onto the boat. Thinking we were pretty cool and still being silly girls, we took tons of pictures with these animals. We called ourselves the gator girls, although we knew without my dad and Mr. Ricky we wouldn't have gotten a single thing....

       Yes, there was a year three of Gator hunting! This time Blake and I drew tags.Yep, we were on our first adventure as newlyweds, how romantic! We hunted and hunted for these things but Blake's tag was in the Delta and my tag was in West Central Alabama. We caught a good one in the Delta but it was not as big as we hoped so we let him go and moved on to a new location. Still just as exciting we loaded up the boat, put our head lights on our heads, bug goggles on and prayers for safety into action to hit these swamps.

      We never would have caught this gator if I had a say because I was a nervous wreck! Before we had always been in open water, maybe some brush but I could always see the downtown Mobile lights, but not here. Nope, all we had was the natural light from the moon and stars and trust me, there was nothing romantic about it! As we were moving along we came across many red eyes. You see when an alligators eyes are very wide apart, that tells you their size, the length can be found in the distance from the eyes to the tip of the nose. 
      Well we saw the eyes we had been looking for and Dad and Blake soon found a little cove; which I assume was his home! Now the other times were fun but this topped my books for near death hunting adventures! We have the entire thing on video and soon we hope to make a nice clip I will post. Since this was my tag my dad wanted me to have the great duty of hitting him with the bang stick once he was to the boat. Nervous, praying the whole time and also arguing with my dad that he should just do it, I took the gun and eventually attempted to pop the gator right behind the head only to find, he did not die! The gun did not go off! I just ticked him off! I handed the stick to my dad and basically jumped to the middle of the boat, leaving my dad to take care of himself  (not that I would have been very much help anyways). Blake was yelling "get back there, you can do this!", I believe I tried one more time, and some how the gator was still in the same place, but not dead! Dad tried, again, nothing! It still had not gone off but this time the gator knew something was not right, he threw his tail in the air as he pulled our lines in the water with him! Our rods flew in the water and 2 hooks I believe were some how left in him as his jaws came chomping back at the boat right by my dads foot! This, what appeared to be a dinosaur went down under the dark water as dad and Blake kept saying "hold on to him, don't let him loose" while I'm thinking "Are we crazy? Lets get the heck out of here before we die!" the fear and excitement all in one was about to bust out of me! My thoughts were "how can we catch this thing with no way to kill him?". We soon realized the bang stick had a tiny rock in it. As we got our things together, we were back in the game and soon this bad boy was back to the boat. I allowed dad the honors to pop him in the back of the head this time. With just Blake, Dad and I; we somehow managed to load this 511lb beast on the bass boat and head back to weigh in! We felt we were on top of the world!

        

         There are so many details to these hunting experiences that I could write a book simply on our gator hunts. This short description in no way does justice to the fun, excitement and memories we have made and had on our little adventures down here in South Alabama.
        As I always believe, God allows things to happen. I believe He gave us those memories. God knows just what we need and knows that sometimes we just need a little change, excitement and fun in life. Through the hurt it is hard to imagine but deep down I know God loves to see His children smile. I think that when our hearts break, His breaks  for us as well; while on the other hand, I also believe, when we smile, God smiles back. I like to think that on these adventure when we are out in the wild with all of Gods amazing and yes scary creations that I am so close to him. It could possibly be my prayers for survival =) but when I am up close and personal with his work of art I can feel and hear him so clearly!

       So although this year was not year 4 for our gator season, maybe next year will be and if not I'm so thankful God reached in and drew our name. Yes, He cares about things like that; to a family like mine whose world appeared to be falling apart, being picked for a simple hunt meant much more than the game we were hunting, it meant that we were still living, that we were still moving forward and that we could learn to make new memories even as we hold on to our other cherished memories. Thank you God for thinking of us even in the small things.

Good Luck Alabama Gator Hunters of 2012!!

God Bless