The Bathroom Beat: Restroom or Campground?

A couple weekends back, I traveled to Seattle, Washington, with my parents and grandparents to watch my sister compete in an indoor track meet (she is a scholarship athelete at the University of Washington). On our way there, I really had to use the bathroom. We stopped at the rest stop on I-5 located just south of Arlington. Once out of the car, I quickly made my way to the restroom. However, what I found, I had never experienced.

I entered the bathroom to find the accessible stall already occupied. This is not unusual; the accessible stall being used is actually quite typical. It was what I observered that was unusal. Over the course of about ten minutes, I began to realize that the woman in the accessible stall, was camped out in there, smoking! I could see a blanket on the floor, multiple large bags leaned up against the wall, and the bathroom began to reak more and more of cigarettes.

As I waited, women came and went. My mom scouted out the facility to see if there was another accessible stall/family bathroom that I could use. She found that there was a second half to the women's bathroom, but it was locked; the ONLY accessible stall was occupied, and not even by someone using it to go to the bathroom!

I had to pee, and could wait no longer; my body was beginning to spasm and I needed to relieve myself. So, I had a choice; I could go get back in the car and wait the hour or so remaining in our trip OR use a non-accessible stall. I had to really go -- I would not have asked to stop otherwise -- so I picked the latter.

This is how this little venture went down. My mom went and got my grandma; I parked my chair in the door way of the stall; my grandma stood behind my chair and held my coat up (to give me a little more privacy) and with my mom's assistance, I was finally able to relieve myself! I am so thankful that my grandma was with us and that Mom and I are both small enough to sqeeze into the stall together.

Even though we were able to make it work, there needs to be another solution. There needs to be more accessible stalls and people need to be more aware that the accessible stall is not for camping out, changing clothing or even for able-bodied people to use when EVERY OTHER STALL IS OPEN!

As of now, I do not have the priveledge just using another stall without having the assistance of two people and the potential of scaring some other person for life. Please be considerate; leave the accessible stall open unless it is your only option. If every other stall is full, go agead and use the accessible stall, I am no more entitled to that stall than you. But remember, that it is the only one I can use while trying to still keep my pride and dignity. I am human too, and yes, I do need to go pee.