Rock-a-don

Growing up in the "way northern" end of Northern California was an experience like no other. I will forever be grateful for the wonderful, slow, safe, happy environment in which I grew up. I'm not sure there are such places anymore... not even in Greenville.

We frequently had to go out-of-town to do, well, just about anything! We went to the dentist in Oroville, 80 miles south down Hwy 70. This is also known as the Feather River Canyon. It is breathtakingly beautiful, but also has its perils!.. like curvy roads, rock slides, deer on the highway, ice slides, you get the picture.

My sisters named the ginormous granite rocks found there rock-a-dons. I always loved that name. It evoked thoughts of prehistoric animals lurking behind each of them!

One of my favorite places in the Feather River Canyon is this rock-a-don. In the winter of 1964-65 we had horrendous flooding in Northern California. It washed out numerous bridges, flooded much of the Indian Valley and caused rockslides in the Feather River Canyon that blocked Hwy 70 for months. This rock was so large they were not able to move it, so they built the new road around it. It is one of my favorite photo spots. This most recent photo was taken in August 2005.

But that isn't where this habit started... the first one I remember was shortly after said floods when Mom and I stopped there to take a photo with our little turquoise blue Ford Falcon. You can see that there isn't any foliage around the rock yet.

The next photo op was in 1981 when Tony, Rebekah, Amanda and I went from Livermore to Greenville for my 10/11 year class reunion (we had such small classes we combined with the class of 1971). It was the last day of July and I didn't have air conditioning in my little Oregon born Rabbit. Shortly after we entered the Feather River Canyon from the south end we went around a sharp curve and that afternoon canyon wind whipped in through the passenger window and whisked right out again with Amanda's favorite blanket! She started to howl, knowing her beloved blankie was lost F-O-R-E-V-E-R! She was very relieved when I made the first safe U-turn and went back to rescue her purple-beauty! We stopped at my favorite rock-a-don for a photo, which turned out to be one of the last of my little family. That whole trip, before the accident, was one wonderful adventure showing my little kids all of Mommie's favorite places. I have always been so grateful for that final time of bonding!


Fast forward 10 years to July 1991 (what am I glutton for punishment???) and our family was returning to Greenville again for my 20-21 reunion. This time there was a whole pack of us (Gordon, Kristi, Ryan, Kevin, Spencer, Camille, Stuart, Rebekah and I)! We wouldn't even fit into one vehicle so I drove the Chevy Astro van and Gordon drove the old gold Oldsmobile Firenza. We stopped for the obligatory photo op. I don't know why there aren't any kids in this particular photo.

We made several stops going up the canyon for the kids to enjoy the rock-a-dons. I love to see how dwarfed they are on these huge mastodons of granite. Below are Spencer, Kevin and Ryan. We had a lovely vacation, learning from our sad experience of 1988 and the vacation from ____ in a borrowed motor home! We rented a house on Lake Almanor. (Ahh, so many memories... fodder for another post!)


And now that brings us back to the beginning... the last day of July 2005... just me and my little red beetle... run away back to California to visit all of my loved ones whom I missed so much in the months after our move to Utah. I guess you could say that these rock-a-dons of granite form a big piece of my emotional foundation, where I grew up- my childhood roots and where I am always welcome to come back and visit... they will always be there... not unlike our True Rock and Foundation.