Friday, February 5, 2021. Afternoon.
So there we were in the rental car starting our trek: our incredibly long and arduous journey (9 hour drive each way), to Okaloosa County, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, for our first vaccine shot at Publix.
The first part of the journey was not so difficult, we were fresh, enthusiastic, and optimistic. We were going to get the vaccine after all! I had many phone calls to make, so I was able to use the time efficiently.
The speed limit on Interstate 75 was 70 miles an hour. As a result, the massive number of tractor trailers that passed us, had to be driving over 90mph.
The scenery was unexciting. Totally flat and just scrub type trees and minor bushes. The billboards advertised chain restaurants and religious messages, primarily anti-choice billboards. Unfortunately, I did not see one billboard that offered any kind of support to pregnant women, no advertisements of places where young mothers could go to be cared for, or have their unborn children cared for or adopted.
After about four and a half hours, we arrived in Gainesville, approximately halfway to our destination. Our hotel, very basic, but clean, was just a half a mile off Interstate 75.
This “adventure”, was our riskiest endeavor since March 2020 and the start of isolation.
We were in a rental car so we had all the windows open the first half of the ride. Roland had picked up the car early in the morning from Enterprise after being assured that the car had been sanitized and that nobody else had been in it since at least the day before.
The hotel, however, was something different. We both had to go inside. My inside events had been limited to short visits to a pharmacy from time to time, and the occasional store when necessary, also for only short periods. Roland did most of the shopping, primarily hardware or food stores, going frequently so that he did not stay inside for much more than 15 minutes.
Our room was on the second floor, we got in the elevator alone, and only had to be there a short time. Roland ordered takeout for dinner and we ate in the room. Had showers went to sleep so we could get up early to drive another 4 1/2 to 5 hours to Fort Walton Beach.
Breakfast came with the room but not until 7am. We left before 7am, so took coffee, a muffin and an orange in the car.
Driving west, the scenery in the panhandle, was not that much different than it had been driving north the day before. Lots of trucks, RV's and tree farms. The most interesting was passing Elgin Air Force Base (almost 500,000 acres), which is used as a target to train pilots dropping bombs. We had no cell phone service during that part of the drive. A bomb target; no towers necessary!
We arrived at the pharmacy, according to the car clock, at 11:48am. My appointment was 1:48pm. I knew I was early, but I was hoping they'd be willing to give me my vaccine early so that we could start the nine hour trek back as soon as possible. I was armed with all my documentation to show that we were “snowbirds” and therefore, qualified for a vaccine shot: our lease of Janice's apartment (Janice is living in California so her condo was empty and she was kind enough to rent it to us for 5 months), and my letter from my financial advisor addressed to our marina; the two required pieces of documentation in addition to a driver's license.
When I entered the store and went to the employee whose job it was to check in vaccine registrants at the pharmacy, and gave her my name, she was in shock, she said you are so early (I thought I was two hours early; it turns out I was three hours early because Fort Walton is in the Central Time Zone). I thought we had driven far, but the concept that we were now in the Central Time Zone really blew my mind.
The woman was so shocked that I was three hours early, that she didn't ask for my id, paperwork, or other info. I explained that we had another nine hour, drive back and had just driven nine hours to get here and that we would really like to get the shot as soon as possible, so we could get back on the road. She said it was out of her hands; I must talk to the pharmacist.
I stood in line and waited for what must have been about 10 minutes but felt like 40, and I approached the window at the pharmacy and explained the situation to the woman behind the glass partition. She also was aghast and said she too couldn't make that decision; only the pharmacist can make that decision. I asked her to please ask the pharmacist. Fortunately she did and Trey (I love Trey), said he would give me the shot.
She asked my name, address (I had been practicing Janice's address and got it right) and birth date (again no documentation nor id); and she did what she had to do for me to get the vaccine three hours early. Of course, I had another favor to ask: Roland's appointment was for the following day at 3:50pm; I was hoping the pharmacist would vaccinate Roland now too. We were really freaking her out, but Trey (my hero), came through.
Because we had so stunned the reception person and the assistant to the pharmacist with our three hour early arrival, in my case, and 30 hour early arrival in Roland's case, no one asked for any paperwork or ID: no drivers license, no lease, no letter from a utility company or financial institution or a governmental agency such as a tax record, all the requirements, were never requested nor reviewed..... but we had been prepared.
I think they were all happy to just get rid of us; we were probably the weirdest folks that they had ever seen at the Publix in Fort Walton Beach, Okaloosa County, Florida.
We were elated. We got our vaccines, sat for 15 minutes as requested by Trey (Roland was jumping around after 5 minutes, but I was not going to upset my buddy Trey); used the restroom, bought sushi to go and ate our sushi lunch in the car, before starting our nine hour ride back to Fort Myers.
The nine hour return journey was not joyful, although we were both really relieved. My arm started to hurt after about an hour or two but it was not serious and not uncommon for me to have a stiff upper arm after a vaccine or other shot.
About an hour before Gainesville, the weather turned ugly, we were in a massive rain storm, we could see almost nothing. We reduced our speed to 40 miles an hour, put on our hazard lights, and watched tractor trailers speed by at the same 90 to 100 miles an hour that they had been driving for the past 2 days. I was a wreck; driving was treacherous. It took about 30 to 40 minutes for us to find an exit so that we could get off the road and wait for the storm to pass. We pulled into a gas station/convenience store parking lot which was quite crowded with other drivers who were also wise enough to get off the road.
Roland went into the convenience store looking for cookies to treat us after that harrowing driving experience, but none were to be had. He did get me some dark chocolate candy (a totally acceptable substitute) and bought himself a Kitkat and some gummy treats. A stiff drink would have been better but we had 5 hours of driving to go.
I was wondering whether we had risked too much to get this vaccine.
I did not really regret making the decision to do this; but I did resent that this is what we had to do to get vaccinated. In Florida, very few people wear masks, even the waitstaff at restaurants, serve maskless. This was the culture we had observed since our arrival in December in St. Augustine. Scary. I feel like we are living in a different reality. Although, we are mostly alone on the boat or walking outside (where I often walk in the street when others walk by), there seems to be no respect for the danger that covid presents; and Florida has the highest incidence of the more dangerous variants than any other state in the United States. So, I felt driven to get a vaccine as soon as humanly possible.
We got back on the road. The weather cleared up, and after an hour or two, miraculously, all of the tractor trailers disappeared off the road. What a relief.
The roadside rest areas have security at night. There is a small house where a guard stays all night because a lot of people, primarily truckers are sleeping in their vehicles at night. I had never seen guarded rest areas. They were basic but the bathrooms were clean and had a lot of air circulation as they were not 100% enclosed (perfect in a pandemic).
Before 10 pm, we rolled into our marina, it wasn't raining, the temperatures were mild, and we were able to unload the car with our overnight bags and all of our food and all of our paperwork in one trip, and get back on the boat without disturbing any of our neighbors in the slips nearby.
We were relieved. We had gotten our first vaccine, we had felt safe not withstanding the stay at the hotel and the rental car, and hoped beyond our wildest imagination, that we will be able to get a second shot closer. Neither of us are looking forward to driving back to Fort Walton Beach for our second vaccine.
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