Ruby Falls and Rock City

Anamitra, Agniswar, Sananda, Suman, Ipsita, Arup, Joyeeta, Vidya

Thanks guys, for bearing me on that weekend.

Other than this amazing bunch of friends, I had my new DSLR camera with me on this trip. Yes, my old Sony Cybershot (with me since 2008) has now decided to take some rest. It was the time of my 5th entry in this blog Bitten by the ClickBug, when I had started to call this blog, a photo-blog. And it was my Cybershot for which I could do it. This is the 50th entry and as much I owe it to the wonderful readers of this dusty page on the internet, I owe it to my little cybershot as well. It has helped re-defined a lot me in a last few years.

Now, back to the trip. It is very truly said - the combined excitement of a group of excited people is more than the sum of the individual excitement of the individuals of the group (although, I have no idea if someone has actually said it or my brain just made it up). The physical measurement of the entity called 'excitement' was not a problem in anyway when Agni was driving down the Volkswagon Jetta at more than 90 mph (more than 95 actually, if I remember it correctly) in that slippery rain. Thanks to the custom made mp3 disc we both had made the night before (before going to Walmart at midnight with Ana, Sananda and Ipsita to buy for-the-road snacks).

Frankly, nobody talks about visiting Ruby Falls or Rock City (not 'rock' as in music but 'rock' as in the solid geological formation of minerals). Nobody. But the group was too much excited to sit back home on yet another weekend (and my new cam had to had a test outing!). So, when we reached the place, we were (at least I was) looking for reasons to convince myself that it would have been a regret had I not come to this place. And by the end of the day, I sure was convinced.

This picture here (this one, just above the word 'above' here) is from the top of a castle-ish structure the management there had build and called it The Lookout Mountain. No historical significance whatsoever. But, the roof top of this showoff castle sure had grabbed one hell of a view for itself.

The main attraction, however, was not over the ground, but under it. Yes, Ruby Falls is a one of a kind underground waterfalls. A 145 feet tall waterfall (almost a 15 storied building), discovered by a cave enthusiast named Leo Lambert and he named it after his wife, Ruby (apparently, a beloved wife!). The place has no natural light, so the governing body here used this chance to decorate the interior with whichever colors they could imagine. Getting near the fall meant sprinkles and staying a little away meant rest your back on the rocky wall of the cave and admire. I did both! Even on our way to this spot, were offered by some signature cave-like structures (including the cliche stalactites and stalagmites and coin pools etc etc).

Few more miles ahead was the Rock City. Now, this was the most happening place that day. Here is how it goes - We all got the tickets and entered the premises completely decorated by rock (at places naturally, at places artificially). Before we were less than 100 steps in, it started to rain cats and dogs (more of tigers and wolves!). With no shelter on our heads, our only chance of relative-dryness was this rock here - The Mushroom Rock! All nine of us ran and squeezed ourselves under this rock... It felt like finding the last missing piece of a very annoying jigsaw puzzle - correct time, correct place, correct shape. It sheltered us for close to 20 minutes in that everything-looks-white heavy rainfall. "Guys! Can we have salute for this..." . There were a lot of "my shoes are ruined", "my hair is ruined" "hey! don't push! I am already half outside..." that day, but I am sure that more than everything else on that trip, we all laugh the most about this mushroom rock episode.

With our enthusiasms washed down, we came out of the rock city gates without going further in. But, once the rain stopped, the fire resurfaced and this time with twice the heat. All of us dried off (under those rest room hand dryers) and convinced the security at the gates to let us in one more time holding the same previously torn tickets in our hands. And guess what, he did! He knew it rained.

"When we have come this far (close to only 300 miles, though), we will go till the end (of the cliff)". This is the kind of text-book energy you actually get, when you travel with a band of equally charged up people. And, honestly, sometimes it takes a lot of this kind of energy to rise above the sense of rational thinking and step onto pieces of flat wood hanging hundreds of feet above the ground with only two pairs of ropes (Okay! I totally knew that it was safe... just wanted to justify a need of courage, in case it would not have been!).

After we crossed this (inspired by quite an aged lady who walked over it without a pause), we were on the cliff that was the last rock of the place. After a postcard photograph (thanks to that random guy from that random group) with all of us smiling in it, we went for the last thing to see in that place - the beautiful little waterfall coming out of a gap in the top most rock. They call it - the Lovers' Leap (tragically, the name says it all).

After some silent minutes of admiration (by all of us. Yes, I noticed!), we left the cliff, walked over tha hanging bridge, past the Mushroom Rock (salute, again), out of the same turn-wheel gate, smiling and winking at the same security people and directly into the most adorable Starbucks I have seen till today! (yes, the one beside the word "beside" here) Yes, it was time when we had to address the fact that all of us are the last quarter of our twenties and this is the time caffeine actually starts to appear like the tonic which is needed to start our days and end our long walks (its like an unwritten rule or something!).

Later that day, we headed for the city of Nashville (my second trip to the city) to enjoy the thing called Saturday night. I wont take the names here, but some of us did not posses their id cards with them at the gates of the bar and the rest of us were "sensitive" enough to spend not more than 15-20 minutes (only) inside the bars listening to live country music and get some drinks! If I can bring myself to that state of courage someday, I will narrate that story in detail. But not today!

And that's that. Next day, we were back in Lexington, all getting ready for the long weekend in 10 more days.

Till the next one,

Cheers!