Oakdale & Knights Ferry, California

May 14th we packed up the car to spend a week in Oakdale, California. Some of Chris's coworkers were being transferred to Minnesota so we house sit their place while they went to find a house to move into next month. We really enjoyed house sitting, 1. because it was in the country, 2. they had two horses and a dog to take care of and have as company. We enjoyed having the animals around and just to look out the window and watch their quirkiness. This day we spent our time exploring Oakdale. This was a wonderful little town and kind of reminded us of Rexburg with its smallness. Our first stop in Oakdale was the Cowboy Museum. This was a neat little museum that just had some of the history of the rodeos and cowboys in the Oakdale area. Oakdale is known as the Cowboy Capital of the World... or at least I think it was and they still go by that name for publicity, because I have been to other places that have a more western feel to it. Oakdale was a very nice town and we have decided that if by chance we have to move back to this area we are NOT living in Stockton, but would love to live in Oakdale instead. Oakdale also had quite a few antique stores like Snohomish. It was interesting to walk through them and it was a nice little walk. Here are some pictures of Oakdale... we didn't get very many in Oakdale because it is like a normal little town, but here are some from the Cowboy Museum, which was just a very small one.

After visiting Oakdale for a little bit we decided to drive out to Knights Ferry to see the covered bridge. Chris had never seen a covered bridge and I had only seen them while visiting in Indiana for the National FFA Convention. It was a wonderful little drive and at first we had travelled in the wrong direction. One thing that we have learned while being in California is that the roads are not marked very good. It seems very typical that we never really know what the speed limit is or what road we are on. So the beginning of the trip was in the wrong direction, however we did pick up some very yummy apricots! Once headed in the right direction it was a very beautiful drive. We had gotten directions to take the back roads to see more of the country side instead of using the main road. While driving along we came across a ranch that had put cowboy boots on all the fence posts, it was really cool!

Once arriving in Knights Ferry we drove to where the covered bridge was. Their was a nice visitors center there that we walked around and then walked around the park along with having a picnic. Construction on this bridge began in March 1862 and opened for traffic on March 30, 1863. This is the longest covered bridge west of the Mississippi which played an important role during the gold rush in which tolls on the bridge took place.