A Pandemic Adventure

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(Note:  All pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them once or twice.)

i had forgotten about taking these pictures until I saw them on my phone a couple of days ago. (I’m still getting accustomed to the idea of thinking of my phone as a camera). But since I found them, I thought I would share the story behind them.

January 2, 2021, was the first day people 75 and older were able to get the Covid vaccine in Cumberland County. Since both My Beautiful Bride and I qualified, we decided to try and get the vaccine that day.

The notice said the gate to the fairground would open at 8am. Since there was road work between our house and the fairgrounds we decided to leave early to make sure we got there in time.

We had no problems with road construction, but traffic came to a complete halt when we were little over a mile from the fairgrounds. Evidently many other people had the same idea.

It took a little over an hour to get into the fairgrounds where we directed to a parking lot and told to wait for further instructions. The parking lot is where these pictures were taken. Please remember that most of the people in these cars were 75+ years old. Oh, and another thing — there were no bathroom facilities open in the area where we were waiting.

So we waited … and waited … and WAITED. Finally, about 2 o’clock we were directed to the line leading to the vaccination station. For the most part this line kept moving (slowly), but it still took close to an hour to get to the stations where we received our shots. The shots were given while we were in our car, so that part worked out very well.

After waiting to make sure we didn’t have a bad reaction we were free to leave the fairgrounds and seek out a rest room as quickly as we could.

Clearly the county did not anticipate so many people turning out on that first day. We got shots 631 and 632, so there were a lot of people in front of us. We later learned that 981 doses of the vaccine were given out that day.

I’m happy to say that the county quickly got it’s act together and began scheduling times for shots. When we got our second shot, we were in and out in less than half an hour. The shots were still being given at the fairgrounds, but there were Port-a-Potties located all over the place.

All in all Betsy and I have to give Cumberland County high marks for the way they’ve handled the vaccinations. That being said, we hope we don’t have to go through anything like that again!

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6 Responses to “A Pandemic Adventure”

  1. Jeevan Says:

    That sounds like a long wait, and it’s great that they could vaccinate so much of them on a single day! Glad you got shot safely. My dad and mom are supposed to take shots as they are 45+ with co-morbidity, but there isn’t an announcement for disabilities below 45. So I have to wait sometime to get my shots.

  2. Ginny Hartzler Says:

    It’s good to see a post from you, George. What a day you had! Now, which vaccine did you get? I hope you went somewhere nice to eat afterward you both used a restroom!

  3. Betsy Says:

    Oh —a day to remember in our lives… BUT –even still, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat… SO good to get it over with so soon…. The joys of being over 75 (one of the few)… ha

    Love,
    Wifey

  4. rhiebert Says:

    Yikes! That is a long wait. I have my appointment for my first shot on Sunday at 6:30pm.

  5. Linda G. Says:

    Today marks 2 weeks after my second shot. Bob will receive his second shot tomorrow. It feels liberating, doesn’t it, to be fully vaccinated.

  6. Lrong Says:

    Great to hear that both of you had your shots. Must have been quite an experience, waiting and waiting, and with no toilet facilities around…

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