July-August, 2019
I have mentioned the small town of Ridgefield several times in the blog while I’ve been camped at Paradise Point State Park. Ridgefield is the closest town to the campground.
So today I thought I would show you a few things that I liked about the town. There was one main street of stores and shops, one gas station, one bar/pub, a library, a small post office, etc. That’s about the size of “downtown” as it were. And then all around that one main street, on all sides, there were several quiet side streets with homes and the school. It is a small town. And a lovely one.
Ridgefield might be small, but it has one big business name associated with it. I’ll tell you about that at the very end of this blog post … no peeking ahead now!
At the edge of town there’s this sign (above) afixed to a chain link fence. That’s the school in the background. I thought it was funny that whoever fastened the sign simply fastened it to the top bar of the fence, which was not level, rather than making sure the sign was level. It kind of made you want to tilt your head to one side while reading the sign.
The photos below are of homes and gardens that I liked in Ridgefield.
Above … a handy way to store kayaks and canoes, making them easy to raise and lower using pulleys.
Above … the bow of an old wooden sailboat peeked out at me on one side street. The boat was about 38 feet long and was being repaired and restored. The boat still had years of life left in her, and the owner was obviously taking care of her.
The home above appeared to be a stately old home, although there were no signs providing information about the house. I loved the rocking chair on the front porch. And if you look real close, you can see a black and white dog just in front of the rocking chair on the front porch of this black and white house. Yes, it was a real dog.
The train tracks and the red building in the photo above were about three blocks west of the “main downtown” area of Ridgefield. There was a paved road across the train tracks here … that’s how those cars got out to the red building. A sign on that road, right past the train tracks, said this was the “Port of Ridgefield”. What? The Columbia River is about two miles away, WAY past that line of green trees in the distance, so there’s not a drop of water in sight … as well, trains do not stop here … and there’s no airport, although I suppose small planes could land in that big field out there tho there was no evidence that they did.
If you look REAL close in the photo above, you’ll see a large mowing machine that was mowing that large field. I zoomed in on it and took the photo below. Can you imagine having that job? … sitting in that machine for hours on end going around and around and around and around.
The photo below is a close-up of the one boat that was on a trailer and parked on the driveway leading to the “Port of Ridgefield” administration building (the red building). This boat was the only boat I could see anywhere in any direction for miles around. Port of Ridgefield? … hmmm.
But then there were the railroad tracks. Railroad tracks are always charming us with the dreams they give us.
Southbound … photo above.
Northbound … photo below.
It was a quiet, country town for sure, and I liked it a lot. I even thought I might like to live there. But then I realized there wasn’t one medical facility in the area, no hospital, no day clinic, no urgent care facility, not even a doctor’s office nor a dentist’s office in town. I am now in my 70’s and, even though I’m active and healthy, I still need to consider the future.
So, there you have it … my little shared glimpse of Ridgefield, WA. Here’s a link to the website for the town of Ridgefield, if you want more info.
Oh, wait, I do have one story to share with you. On my drive through Ridgefield to get to the kayak rental place, I realized I had left my wrist watch back at the campsite in my trailer. Well, I didn’t want to head out for a paid three hours of kayaking without being able to tell the time, and I didn’t want to risk taking my cell phone with me and possibly having it be accidentally dropped in the river.
So I stopped at the little grocery store on the corner in “downtown” Ridgefield and talked with Shirley, who also happened to be the owner. She didn’t sell wrist watches but she jokingly (or actually not jokingly but really truly) offered to loan me hers! But then she thought maybe “Dave and Ruth across the street in the hardware store might have something you could use.” So I thanked Shirley (and I bought a few grocery items that I knew I could leave in the car for the three hours that I was kayaking), and I then headed on foot across the street to the hardware store. Ruth greeted me at the door, along with their two dogs, and I was instantly and warmly welcomed. No they didn’t sell wrist watches either but she TOO offered to loan me her personal wrist watch. (This is small town America at it’s best!) I ended up buying an inexpensive small plastic alarm clock from Dave and Ruth and carried that along with me in my rented kayak. And, ok, I bought some sandpaper and some Elmer’s wood glue from them too, both of which I will certainly use in the future but which I didn’t really need.
All in all, I managed to figure out how to get a time piece that I could take with me on the kayak trip, but even WAY more better than that, I met the nicest folks. Life is just so sweet. 🙂
And now … NOW … now I’ll tell you about that “big business” name that is associated with the small town of Ridgefield, WA. Remember at the very beginning of this blog post that I promised to tell you about that? Ok, here we go …
It’s U-HAUL. Yes indeed, truth-be-told. U-Haul.
Who would have guessed? One doesn’t think about these things much (at least I don’t), but of course all things must start somewhere … and some when.
Sam and Anna Mary Shoen … 1945 … right after WWII when a whole lot of folks in Canada and the USA wanted to move their stuff to a new town and a new beginning … Sam and Anna Mary were moving north from California and couldn’t find a trailer in which to haul their belongings so ended up taking only what would fit in their car. While on the drive north, they came up with this idea and it stuck, big time! They coined the name U-Haul, they started the company, they built the first trailers (some of which failed) but then they improved the trailers, and the rest of the story is certainly a great success story.
Here’s a U-Haul company webpage that shares some of the history of the company … https://www.uhaul.com/About/History.
Here’s just one mind-blowing statistic from that webpage: The annual mileage of North American U-Haul trucks, trailers, and tow dollies would move a family to the moon and back more than 9.9 times per day, every day of the year.
So, yep, I sure learned more stuff today by simply driving around but I also learned by simply stopping, parking the truck, and walking into small local stores and talking with real people. I still don’t know whether it’s the floral and fauna of the wilderness that I love so much, or if it’s the extraordinary but also “common” people I meet along the way. I guess I love them both. 🙂