Linden

The BF had to make a stop here to pick something up so I got to experience life in Linden for a couple of hours. Now this is not the smallest of towns in this area--it has more than 1000 residents which is a lot more than Farmington--but this is pretty much a small farm community. You can drive through it in less than minute on your way up into the Sierra and never even realize that it is a town onto itself.

Being a city gal, I have a hard time imagining life in a place this small, where there are literally fewer total people than at my high school. It seemed nice enough though. There are some shops like a hair salon, a martial arts and yoga place, and a roadside restaurant that we stopped at.

You would definitely not want to make the commute into anywhere farther than Stockton from here, but I could see why someone might like to get away from it all. Property values for one thing seem a lot more reasonable. Most homes, even newer ones from as late as 2007, seem to be selling for between $150 and $300 thousand, which is pretty impressive.

Schools are pretty good too, with Linden High being above average.

So, I guess as long as you don’t mind the boredom of small time life or are willing to make the long jaunt into Stockton, this could be an okay sort of life.