Share a story to entertain the masses.

In my twenties I spent a lot of time hanging out on Friday nights until almost dawn. One of the gathering points for the group I hung out with was at a lake, in a gravel parking lot, which was under "Mile Long" bridge. This lot also served as a boat launch on to the lake and had a coarse sand area. What was nice about it was that we weren't immediately visible from any roadways, or from the bridge itself unless someone parked on the eastbound shoulder and looked over the bridge railing.

There would normally be 15 to 30 of us just sitting on cars or on the sand, drinking a little bit and just shooting the ****. This, of course, happened well after park hours and we would inevitably get chased out at some point by a county sheriff or park ranger making their rounds. I'm pretty sure we were reported a time or two by overnight fishermen via their cell phones.

So one hot, humid, summer evening someone in the group exclaims their going swimming. Better yet! They are skinny dipping. Who is going to join them? There is a lot of the usual big talk and razzing. In the end, there are 4 people who are going to take the plunge.

It's important to note here that I love to swim. I worked most of my summers as a teenager at a lifeguarded beach my grandparents operated for the county. I swam every single day. I certified to scuba dive when I was 14. I love the water. Of course I was one of the 4.

Two girls, another guy, and I stashed our clothes a little ways down from our friends under a small rocky outcropping on the beach. This was more out of consideration that our friends were the type of *kitten* who would take off with our clothes, leaving us a naked drive home. Bare *kitten* naked the four adventurous souls ran into the water and began swimming. All four were good swimmers and we decided to strike out for the first pylon of the bridge. Between the water, the swimming, and, let's be honest, naked girls it was an excellent time.

The water was calm and very quiet that night. It cooled quickly as we crossed into deeper regions. We by silent assent decided to swim as softly and as quietly as we could. In the distance, you could see the running lights of 4 or 5 boats on the water; most likely V-bottom cruisers and flat bottomed fishing boats.

Halfway out to the pylon we paused to get our bearings to the shore to see how far out we were compared to how far we had left. Good thing we checked at that moment because of course that is when the red and blue lights of a squad car came on.

The cops had of course arrived. We were of course bare *kitten* naked a good 200, maybe even 300, yards from shore. The water of course felt that much colder. One of the girls starts to exclaim something, to which we remaining three shushed her.

"What should we do?" the girl then whispered. "We're going to get busted out here."

The other guy pointed out, "There is no way they can see us. It's too dark."

"I can tread water all night", I chimed in. The other girl, treading water next to me, breathes, "We have to stop talking. Sound carries over the water too well."

As if to prove her point, we clearly hear a discussion between the officer, who is now out of his car, and one of our friends, the titular ring leader of our merrier band most nights. The cop is asking whose two cars are left with no one in them. My car and the car that belongs to the girl next to me. Naturally. The ring leader, knowing this, tells the cop that those cars were there when we arrived. They have no idea who owns them. The officer warns everyone not to come back tonight; those that do risk a $100.00 ticket. Cars pull out of the lot in a steady line. All except the cop, who is now walking the beach with the honking, huge, Maglite flashlight swinging back and forth as he looks for the owners of the two cars.

Teeth chattering, we are stuck treading water as the officer meanders down the beach closer to where we hid the clothes. Me and the girl whose idea this was to begin with are trying not to laugh out loud because we are sure the gig is up. Soft giggles and some rueful head shaking were all we let loose with though. The other girl is giving us the stink eye and whispering angrily at us about what if we get caught? What if a boat heads our way?! Somehow, this is all our fault. What about her and the other guy, whose rides home had to leave?!?!?

The officer finally get back in his car and after sitting there for what seems an eternity, pulls away. We breakout into a sprint back to the beach because by this point we're cold from just treading. Goose pimpled and shivering there was some wet struggling into our clothes. We then sorted out the most probable place our friends have gone. The Perkins just off the old auto mile.

We arrive to the entire smoking section erupting into cheers and cries of where were you guys? The cop did catch you? You weren't all down on the beach getting it on? Etc, etc.

Yet another story revolving around, "Hey, you remember that one time you were naked and ...."