#130 Access-a-boat

Recently my relatives and I were out driving around looking for houses. In case you haven’t noticed, the price on the average home has increased about 100,000 dollars in the last year. Lucky we’re not having a housing bubble. I read somewhere that about a third of all new houses sold are on interest only loans. Hmm. Seems to me an interest-only loan is pretty much the same thing as renting from the bank.
Houses that were further from the city center tended to cost more. I suppose because it takes someone well-heeled enough to have the time to commute the distance, have the car to commute the distance and have the money for gas for the car to commute the distance. Still, some of the nicest homes in outlying areas had Civics and Hyundais and what not in the driveway. When my brother-law pointed out the apparent paradox, I said the cars probably belonged to the help.
So while we had the map out in our estate exploration adventure we decided to stop in at a few parks here and there, let my new-to-the-area relatives sample some of the fine natural opportunities in this great community. We did Priest Point and Burfoot, where they were amazed that forests actually went down to the water. Where they used to live, from their house the forest was an hour’s drive in one direction and the beach was an hour’s drive in the opposite direction. Never will the twig find the tide. Does anyone go barefoot to Burfoot by the way? And if so, do they not put much stock in a name?
But there were some parks we couldn’t get to; Odd Fellows Park and Indian Road Park to be exact. These parks were only accessible by boat. A little research when I returned confirmed that indeed, there are numerous such parks in the great state of Washington. Understandably, we were miffed. The parks were on the map. The borders of those parks, according to the map, extended to public roads, paved, pothole-free and with signs of recent shoulder mowing. But when we got there, no way to get in, no identifying placard, and surly residents with “Private Road” “Dead End Street” and “No Outlet” signs dangling from their shotguns. So how is it that in this great ADA country of ours, where a business can’t open its doors without a wheelchair ramp and handrails in the can, where you can’t throw an outdoor event without a triple-wide handicap port-a-potty; how is it that we can have a state, county or federal park that is only accessible by boat? A little economic discrimination if you ask me. I can understand if it’s an island. Or something stuck out on a remote peninsula where there aren’t any roads anyhow. But in suburban Olympia? So my ADA question is, since we boatless people are obviously suffering from an economic handicap, when’s the state gonna buy us a Bayliner? Great question, I think I’ll pursue it. People’ll be saying to me: “Those are expensive clothes Funny Guy, where you get em?”
And I’ll say: “This old thing? I call it my class action suit.”
America, ya gotta love it.