Boat ramp follies...just some thougts.

Spent some time watching folks on the ramp today, confimring my suspicions that we are being overrun by buffoons, even up here in the hills. It was extremely sad.
I ain't gonna name the lake, just throw out some thoughts.

-Having a bad-boy lifted truck with 4 grand worth of wheels and tires and a booming stereo pounding on the ramp isn't going to help you, or attract others to help you when the cheap-arse mismatched, bias ply weather checked tires on the trailer under your 60k boat explode as you are hauling out.
Get some good tires on you trailer. Get a spare.
Carry some basic tools. A lug wrench and a jack would be a good start, practice using them at home.

-The courtesy dock is for quick loading and unloading of folks, not for stacking huge piles of camping gear, and taking up both sides of the dock for half an hour.

-Nothing in the world makes people with trailers more angry than some moron without a trailer pulling right to the bottom of a ramp, taking up the turn-around area and a recovery lane while all the inbred, overweight, kids climb into the 78 Dodge k-car wagon, arguing about who pooped his or her pants, while mom and dad are yelling at each other as they are trying to find their cigarettes

-Three lane boat ramps are designed so three boats can be recovered at any given time, not one active lane and one or two clowns taking up the other two, waiting until the boat is touching the water to put up the bimini, take the straps off the transom, load the ice chests, or do any of the above in reverse when pulling out. The launch/recovery lane isn't a wipe down zone either. That area is labled "PREP ZONE". It is over by the parking area.

-The courtesy dock is not for people to sit in their chairs and fish from. Nor is it a staging area for three canoes full of unsupervised screaming kids to purposely swamp their vessels, placing them, the canoes, and all the boats in the area at risk. if you have children at/near the lake and water, supervise them. If you don't want to do that, do us all a favor and stay home or go to the municipal pool back in your hometown where you can lay the responsibility for your children on some unfortunate lifeguard. Or,buy yourself one of those cool pools at K-Mart.

-If you must bring your canine friend to the lake with you, please keep it under control. Please be prepared to clean up after it.

-If you are new at traileriing, launching, or recovering, ask for help, and try not to perform these acts during peak hours. You might even want to practice backing in a quiet parking lot someplace beside the ramp. This will mitigate the impact of dragging your stern drive, swamping your truck, etc. has on the rest of us.

-If you have a boat, and are bringing friends, educate one or more of them in the skills necessary to assit with backing, towing, loading, or launching. If they can't/won't help you, and they are going to sit in your boat blocking the ramp and the dock while you try to do everything, take the key so the rest of us don't have to listen to your boat stereo pounding while you try to do everything, and your friends are busy looking cool, and we are unable to hear as we are trying to load/unload.

-A few very basic simple rule for folks, even the most oblivious, ignorant, self-centered attention starved types might go something like this.
"While you may feel as if you own the world, and are in control of the speed by which it rotates, there will be an infrequent situation where it might be in your best interest to wake the heck up, look around you, and consider the fact that even if you did own it, the rest of us who call the planet home are not the least bit interested in how cool you think you are. A safe bet for you would be to take your cool quotion, divide it by two, and re-evaluate yourself at 15% of that. That number is what the rest of us, those beyond your nose, the other creatures you see moving around in front of you think of you... on a good day.
If large numbers of people are staring at you, and you are taking up space, consider the fact that the space you are in might be one that SOMEBODY ELSE NEEDS TO USE!
Today was a great lesson in one of the undeniable truths of life.
"You can't fix stupid"
Stupid is reaching epidemic levels.