Today I spent some time with a friend who has a wheelchair access van.   
   it was her birthday and she wanted to spend it with me.  I was honored   
   and she had to drive, her van was the only way she could get around. It   
   has a ramp that comes down from the side and special locks that allow   
   her to drive and not move from her wheelchair.   
      
   When she parks she has to find a wheelchair accessible parking space   
   that allows her to deploy the ramp so she can roll down.  Which means   
   that she has to find a space with the yellow stripes to the left side of   
   her ven.  I thought that this shouldn't be a problem.  I have a disabled   
   parking pass of my own and I use it without any hesitation as I do have   
   a legitimate reason to use it.  Until today I never realized how   
   important that the lines and space was to somone like my friend.   
      
   We started by going to the apple store at the mall.  She deployed her   
   ramp and got out of her van just fine.  She told me she has two choices   
   leave her van open and ramp deployed while she is in the store which   
   dishonest people would rummage through her van stealing what they can   
   find... or close her van up which means her ramp folds back up into the   
   van.   
      
   We were only going to be there for an hour... but it ended up being   
   three hours because when we came out three motorcycles were parked in   
   the striped area where the ramp would fold down... I looked at her and   
   asked her if I could back the van out so she could fold the ramp down.   
   That would have worked but her van had no pedals all hand controls and I   
   was not comfortable doing this.   
      
   She said her only other options were to...   
      
   1.  Wait for the motocycles to come out   
   2.  Go shop some more and hope they are gone when she returned.   
   3.  Call mall security / police   
      
   We waited for a bit there at the car, we really wanted to go eat a new   
   India Palace restaruant and take advantage of their lunch buffet   
   and we had more than an hour to get there.       
      
   We skipped #2 and went to #3... I walked in the mall to have security   
   come by, she decided to call the police while I was in there.   
      
   When I came out we waited 30 minutes for the police to show up and only   
   after the police showed up did mall security show up.  The police asked   
   mall security to go look at the footage and see if they can ID the   
   owners of the motorcycles.   
      
   30 more minutes passed and we now had 20 mins to go to the buffet she   
   wanted to try... motorcycles still there and the police officer decided   
   to call impound, as he was kind of miffed because the motorcycles parked   
   in the striped line.  Listening to the discussion between my friend and   
   the officer I learned that this is a very common thing... that   
   motorcyclists do not realize that the space is for ramps.  I also picked   
   up that at Wal-Mart and other stores that have limited space other   
   poeple with disabled parking passes will park in the striped areas when   
   there is not enough room inconveniencing people with the ramps literally   
   locking them into the parkign space until they are done.   
      
   Radio came back and said it would be 45 minutes before an impound unit   
   would arrive and they needed "three" untis because they can tow a   
   motorcycle but only 1 per truck.   
      
   My friend remaind calm and accepting as if this was something she dealt   
   with all the time.  We knew at that point the place she really wanted to   
   eat at was not goign to happen.  She remained stoic... but i could see   
   the disappointment in her eyes.   
      
   We waited almost 45 minutes, the cop was nice he stayed with us he did   
   go through the McDonald's drive in and get us a soft drink which was   
   very nice, but he waited there letting us know if he caught a run he   
   would have to leave.  The motorcycles had three bright pink tow stickers   
   on them and citations taped to their windows... which was nice to know   
   that they were each goign to be fined $115 plus court costs but that   
   didn't help our situation.   
      
   After waiting almost two hours finally three young men (who did not look   
   like bikers with leather and all) came strolling out of a place called   
   the "Brewhouse" we had many nice people stop and talk to us apparantly   
   they had some "brew" and had to sit and wait a while to make sure they   
   were able to drive away.  The cop gave them a VERY stern talkign to   
   letting them know that they inconvenienced us.   
      
   They gave us an apology which was pretty half-hearted.  And were on   
   their way... we called the India Palace and unfortunately they were   
   closed until dinner... just when we were about to give up hope a lady   
   came out of the mall from an Italain place called Bucca di Beppo and   
   invited us in.  We were hungry so we went back in and had an amazing   
   experience they had a special table in the kitchen and we were treated   
   like royalty.  I did not care how much it cost I was going to pay (she   
   had a buy one buffet get one buffet coupon to the other place and I   
   still was going to pay we are both disabled and money is tight.)   
      
   They just kept bringing food for us to try, apparently the table in the   
   kitchen is meant to be for special times and we got to taste a bit of   
   everything.  When we went to pay the lady who came out said that she   
   heard it from a friend who worked at the ear-ring hut that was a friend   
   of hers what happened to us.  She said the meal was complimentary I've   
   never saw my friend cry before but it really touched her.   
      
   I cringed when we went out to her car but her ramp was not blocked so it   
   was off to Target.  We spent time shopping and having fun at target,   
   when we went out to the van another car with a disabled window tag was   
   parked in the stripes.  My friend sighed and said this one will be   
   easier since it's ONE store and not a mall.  I went in and told the   
   service desk what happened.  The manager paged the owner of the vehicle   
   and a very "entiled" young lady came out and looked at my friend and   
   said, "I don't see what the big deal is we both have tags."    
      
   Looking at the young lady I couldn't see one thing wrong with her and I   
   just told her the wheelchair ramp folds down into the lines she was   
   parked at.  She looked at us like we were nothing so I added, "oh and   
   hte police have been called and they will check to see if -YOU- are the   
   one that belongs with that tag."   
      
   She looked at us and the Target superviser and said, "I ain't got time   
   for this I gots to go."  And she left... in a hurry.     
      
   The manager said she had a whole cart of stuff she left behind too...   
   hopefully the lesson stuck in, but this opened my eyes.  I know with my   
   disability it's easy for me to fall in the trap of not noticing others   
   but those lines are important...really important for the disabled who   
   are in wheelchairs.   
      
   Sorry for writing so much today, I learned something and had to share   
   it.   
      
   Allen   
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
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