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What. A. Day.
10 Apr 2021 22:43So.
Appointment for vaccine at the FEMA site, run by the US Army, in Yakima, at 10:40 am. It's a 2.5 hour drive.
Linnea was rowing this morning in Seattle with Perry.
We went to pick her up and hit the road. Very quickly it becomes apparent that There Will Be Problems.
Because there is snow on the road at even low-ish elevations. We'd checked the night before and everything was clear.
I started to check the various WSDOT websites. I90 westbound was closed for conditions and numerous accidents. I90 eastbound, the direction we're headed in, still open. A few miles from the pass, traffic stopped.
We sat for 2 hours and 15 minutes. During that time it snowed quite a bit, and rained, and snowed some more. Then the sun came out and the snow on the car melted.
Perry had appointments for that afternoon in Yakima and we told him to cancel. He's an ok driver, but he isn't a great iffy condition driver and it just seemed that the weather was going to be random.
Our appointment time came and went. We considered giving up, turning around, and going to Bend via I5, though a different route that we usually take because the route we prefer had... a pass closure. In the end, we sat there, figuring that this was a mass vaccination site, they usually have numerous appointments available at the end of the day, and it's worth a try.
I had to pee. Heck, we all did.
When the freeway finally reopened, after 2+ hours, we found out that we were towards the front of the blockage. We opted not to stop at the first rest area, figuring it would be packed, but instead pushed on to the second one. When wee got there, there wasn't even a line at the women's restroom. When we left, maybe 10 minutes later, there were lines at the both restrooms, and no parking. Clearly, we were at the leading edge of the crowd.
We got into Yakima and immediately noticed that at the State Fair grounds exit, the cars are mainly expensive, like Mercedes, Lexus, and Audi SUVs and several Teslas. We got to the fair grounds following that group of expensive cars: very clearly King County had come over the pass to get their vaccines at the open-to-everyone-plenty-of-doses site.
It took 30 minutes total, counting the 15 minutes in the car (one window open, doors unlocked, honk if there is a problem), four checkpoints, and whole bunch of cute OMG so very young Army personnel but the three of us got our shots. The relief. OMG, the relief.
They said that most everyone had missed their morning appointments, and they were trying to persuade people who had signed up for the Moderna vaccine to get Pfizer (which is what we had signed up for and got) since they had plenty of doses defrosted, sigh.
As we were in our 15 minute hold, we could see the line we'd been in earlier... which was now about three times as long as it had been minutes before. I'm glad we were able to keep ahead of the crowd.
Three last bits of comment:
Perry and his girlfriend were able to reschedule for tomorrow.
Military logistics are impressive. That was run so freaking smoothly and while I know that with more people it would take longer, it was easy to see how everything was set up for efficiency. That said... it's pathetic. I mean, they can give 1500 shots a day. Going by the appointments that are left at the end of each day, they're doing maybe half of that. In the meanwhile Western Washington is desperate for doses. Siting all but one of the mass vaccination sites in the state in Eastern Washington is not going to be seen as, I suspect, a good decision when everything in analyzed: too red, too many Trumpists who don't trust the vaccine, and as a result, frustration from the half of the state who does want the vaccine and see doses going to waste in the red areas.
I knew Linnea was looking forward to getting a shot... I did not know how stressed she's been about covid and not being vaccinated. She's only really talked about in the past few days, but she's been worried and she was so relieved to get the shot. Perry as well. They're not dismissing covid as something not serious, even though they both know that their personal risks are small.
And now I'm in Bend, and about to crawl into bed. It was a long and tiring day, but that first dose is acquired and I'm so so happy about that. Even if my arm is hella sore.
Appointment for vaccine at the FEMA site, run by the US Army, in Yakima, at 10:40 am. It's a 2.5 hour drive.
Linnea was rowing this morning in Seattle with Perry.
We went to pick her up and hit the road. Very quickly it becomes apparent that There Will Be Problems.
Because there is snow on the road at even low-ish elevations. We'd checked the night before and everything was clear.
I started to check the various WSDOT websites. I90 westbound was closed for conditions and numerous accidents. I90 eastbound, the direction we're headed in, still open. A few miles from the pass, traffic stopped.
We sat for 2 hours and 15 minutes. During that time it snowed quite a bit, and rained, and snowed some more. Then the sun came out and the snow on the car melted.
Perry had appointments for that afternoon in Yakima and we told him to cancel. He's an ok driver, but he isn't a great iffy condition driver and it just seemed that the weather was going to be random.
Our appointment time came and went. We considered giving up, turning around, and going to Bend via I5, though a different route that we usually take because the route we prefer had... a pass closure. In the end, we sat there, figuring that this was a mass vaccination site, they usually have numerous appointments available at the end of the day, and it's worth a try.
I had to pee. Heck, we all did.
When the freeway finally reopened, after 2+ hours, we found out that we were towards the front of the blockage. We opted not to stop at the first rest area, figuring it would be packed, but instead pushed on to the second one. When wee got there, there wasn't even a line at the women's restroom. When we left, maybe 10 minutes later, there were lines at the both restrooms, and no parking. Clearly, we were at the leading edge of the crowd.
We got into Yakima and immediately noticed that at the State Fair grounds exit, the cars are mainly expensive, like Mercedes, Lexus, and Audi SUVs and several Teslas. We got to the fair grounds following that group of expensive cars: very clearly King County had come over the pass to get their vaccines at the open-to-everyone-plenty-of-doses site.
It took 30 minutes total, counting the 15 minutes in the car (one window open, doors unlocked, honk if there is a problem), four checkpoints, and whole bunch of cute OMG so very young Army personnel but the three of us got our shots. The relief. OMG, the relief.
They said that most everyone had missed their morning appointments, and they were trying to persuade people who had signed up for the Moderna vaccine to get Pfizer (which is what we had signed up for and got) since they had plenty of doses defrosted, sigh.
As we were in our 15 minute hold, we could see the line we'd been in earlier... which was now about three times as long as it had been minutes before. I'm glad we were able to keep ahead of the crowd.
Three last bits of comment:
Perry and his girlfriend were able to reschedule for tomorrow.
Military logistics are impressive. That was run so freaking smoothly and while I know that with more people it would take longer, it was easy to see how everything was set up for efficiency. That said... it's pathetic. I mean, they can give 1500 shots a day. Going by the appointments that are left at the end of each day, they're doing maybe half of that. In the meanwhile Western Washington is desperate for doses. Siting all but one of the mass vaccination sites in the state in Eastern Washington is not going to be seen as, I suspect, a good decision when everything in analyzed: too red, too many Trumpists who don't trust the vaccine, and as a result, frustration from the half of the state who does want the vaccine and see doses going to waste in the red areas.
I knew Linnea was looking forward to getting a shot... I did not know how stressed she's been about covid and not being vaccinated. She's only really talked about in the past few days, but she's been worried and she was so relieved to get the shot. Perry as well. They're not dismissing covid as something not serious, even though they both know that their personal risks are small.
And now I'm in Bend, and about to crawl into bed. It was a long and tiring day, but that first dose is acquired and I'm so so happy about that. Even if my arm is hella sore.
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