Three In One

Last Saturday, we decided to pull of a “Three In One” – three different smaller events all in one afternoon. 

We invited Grandpa to come along with us, and he kept up well with our pace!

Our first stop was the Fair Oaks Chicken Festival.  For decades, Fair Oaks has the distinction of having wild chickens that wander all through town.  Once a year, the Chicken Festival is held with bands, booths, games and food.

This was our 1st time here, we walked through, got some yummy kettle corn, saw the chickens, (didn’t eat them, although there were tons of chicken food) and it was time to move on.

Our next stop was  a “Rail Festival” put on by the ‘Railroad Education and Preservation Society and the El Dorado Sacramento Historical Railroad Historical Association’ otherwise known as the REPSEDSHRHA.  I think that is the longest group name I’ve ever heard of! 

They are working to complete a line of railway that has been abandoned from Folsom to Placerville through the foothills and hope to open it in about 2 years to tourist rail excursions. This was the 1st annual Rail Festival to raise awareness of their project.

They brought several old pieces of railway cars and equipment and had rides on some of them. We went on the streetcar and were ambushed by some not to nice folks.

We rode a few  miles down the track and then came back. Hard to believe just a few miles down the way was the city. Looking at this scenery, you would have thought we were in the middle of nowhere!

There was a very cute banjo band that were very good!  They only place that had shade, was right next to the drive-thru for Starbucks. So all the Starbucks people got serenaded as they ordered their coffee.

We ended up our 3-in-1 at the old Folsom Powerhouse. Back in the day, when electricity came to town in 1895, the Folsom dam was built, and the water rushing down the river was used to generate electricity that was used to power Sacramento 22 miles away.  The plant was used until 1952.

The water would rush down these huge pipes and turn huge turbines to generate the electricity.  They used labor from the nearby Folsom prison to build the dam and the powerhouse.

We accomplished our 3-in-1 and had a great time!  Thanks Grandpa for coming with us!