Pecking Thumbs and the Golden Twinkle In Mother Earth's Eyes

IMG_4867 a photo by FreeManWalking on Flickr.

Driving across the flat spine of the highland rim across an undulating but arrow straight stretch of Highway 70S I pondered my situation. Beside me sat a pretty girl half my age wearing out the keypad of her cell phone…because that’s what twenty-one-year old girls do. I’ve seen this before, been ignored in favor of a set of pecking thumbs at the other end of the electronosphere. But it was okay. I had my dog with me and where we were headed was so remote that no texts would come in no matter how many silly boys pecked out her number back in Murfreesboro.
Meadow had been late, of course, causing me to go through an extra pot of coffee and then bring myself down from the caffeine jitters with a noontide can of cheap beer. But that was okay. It set us up to arrive at our destination at that dazzle light time of day, the time when the sun cuts across the tops of the trees just before it sinks down behind the ridge and, as a good-night to the day, it sets the canyon on fire with a soft orange glow.
We were heading high up onto the Cumberland Plateau to Fall Creek Falls State Park to take in a bit of Nature and fresh air. Meadow isn’t really into hiking so I had planned an itinerary that didn’t call for too much strenuous activity, just a lot of pretty scenery. Just outside the park we stopped and each bought a six pack of pony beers, jerky, and potato chips. My young companion bought a Butterfinger bar as well which she smashed up before opening it. “It makes it easier to chew,” she said. I suppose.
Meadow had never seen a waterfall, at least not that I know of. At any rate she had never seen any like the ones at Fall Creek Falls. We parked and walked up to the overlook of Cane Creek Falls and she began to glow with excitement. After two weeks of intermittent storms the falls were booming. Cane Creek drops 85-feet into a large amphitheater where it pools and swirls before racing on down the gorge. I pointed down the gorge to the rocks where a buddy and I had to spend the night one chilly night when we got lost in dark unpreparedness and couldn’t find our way back up. “Cool, I need my cell phone to take a picture.”
“Here, use mine.” She figured out how to do more on my smart phone in sixty seconds than I’ve figured out since October.
From Cane Creek Overlook we drove to the parking lot for Fall Creek Falls. This falls is high but in dry weather can be underwhelming due to low volume because it is on a small-ish creek. We walked up to the over look and Meadow, this time armed with my Canon camera, began snapping photos of Fall Creek plunging a healthy plume 256-feet off the sandstone ledge it has cut over eons of time. Little Coon Creek Falls boomed away as well, just to the right.
We started down the short but steep trail to the base of the falls. We slipped and slid over wet rocks and mud, Maze Dog leashed and pulling me down the trail in a way that would have made her husky forbears howl in approval. We stopped often to take pictures. Meadow is an aspiring photographer with a good eye. I was happy not to have to be in charge of the camera. We climbed to the top of a rock as big as a house and sat down for a cigarette. I wondered what we would do, sitting there so close to one another, putting our hands on each other’s chest to feel our hearts beat. We had made out a couple of weeks prior but much alcohol had been involved and I don’t think that really counted. Anyhow, I’ve learned over time, especially when dealing with young girls, that it’s best to enjoy the moment, and even if its just for kicks, don’t try to steal that carpe diem kiss too soon, no matter what Ben Harper says about it.
Meadow was already tired from walking so back on the trail I carried her on my back for a ways until I realized the jutting rocks and slick mud presented a hazard to us both and falling down and bouncing our heads off hard shale-y rocks was a likely outcome. Meadow would have to walk.
At trails end we were enveloped by the tickling spray atomizing off the thundering falls. Fall Creek Falls really is an impressive sight during the wet weather of early Spring. More pictures, then it was time to climb back up, which was easier than going down.
From the parking lot we drove out the gorge overlook road. It is a pretty drive. I put on “Porcelain” by Moby to listen to. All day we had hit a generational gap on what constituted good music and this had led to listening to Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” about ten times, the rest of the drive being consumed by the Flaming Lips singing about fighting robots. But the gorge rim road in the dazzle light of late afternoon requires music that is measured and steady, classical works but a good electronic groove is best.
We stopped at Copelaner’s Point and looked at the sun hitting the headland on the other side of the gorge. I told her how it was named for a botanist who used to bring his students there to hunt for wildflowers but she was texting so I don’t think she heard me. “He did what? O my god, I can’t believe I have service up here!”
Our true destination on the gorge overlook road was Buzzard’s Point. It is about the most beautiful spot in the state of Tennessee and usually you can have it all to yourself. We pulled up to Millikan’s Point and briefly took in the view from the large observation deck.
“Let’s don’t waste the light here,” I said.
“But it’s so gorgeous here,” she protested.
“I’ve got something to show you and it’s only about 500-feet away.”
We walked across a short trail through the Virginia pine and chinquapin oak. I helped her down a small ledge then across a small gap between the rocks. That’s where the forest opened up and we walked out onto a high point that jutted out into the thin air where two gorges converge and there is nothing but wind and sky and ridgelines fading away into the distance of the Tennessee backcountry.
“O my god, this…is…so…beautiful!”
“I thought you’d like it.”
Meadow took the camera and ran around taking pictures, making the most of that golden yellow afternoon love light that is surly the twinkle in Mother Earth’s eyes. I sat in the sun sipping on my pony beer, smoking an American Spirit cigarette. That’s about as good as it gets for. Indulging in my two petty vices while watching a pretty girl enjoy the world around her.
We sat at Buzzard’s Roost about forty-five minutes until Meadow declared that she was freezing, which is funny because, once again, she had come out with me underdressed and was wearing my jacket as I sat in shirt sleeves.
Darkness set in on the winding drive back to the little big city. Her phone blew up with the pecking thumbs of probing boys. Meadow was so good at texting that I handed her my phone and had her send a couple of texts for me as well.
Back in town we stopped in at the little hippie bar where she works, the one that holds us all together. We had a couple quality beers, Sam Adams Noble Pils and Sweetwater 420. She invited me to go take shots with her and out friend that looks like Jesus but I declined. I don’t do shots anymore and the most important thing to remember when building a friendship with a young girl is to know when to release her into the eternal party of the wild night.