Well that was a banner weekend. There is a lot to be said for being in the right place at the right time and just having some good old fashioned luck.

At the F1 track here in Austin they’ve been having mass covid vaccination events on the weekends. Ya know, those big drive through ones where they’re able to vaccinate thousands of people relatively quickly. Right now in our state you can only get an appointment for the vaccine if you fall into the phase 1A or 1B categories, of which I am neither. I’d put myself on every “waste dose” list I could find, just in case something happened to come available, but otherwise I figured I’d probably end up having to wait until May or June to be able to get one. And then on Friday afternoon the mass vaccination event at the F1 track had some leftover appointments and opened them up to the general public. Bobby sent me the signup link and I immediately logged in and got myself on the list. You had to be quick, all the appointments were gone within minutes.

I managed to snag a time slot though, and got my appointment confirmation email. I admit I was still kind of skeptical. My appointment was at the end of the day… would they really still have doses left? Would they turn me away if more 1A or 1B people showed up? I had an “I’ll believe it when they stab the needle in my arm” mentality, but it sure as heck was worth a try. So on Saturday afternoon I got in my truck, drove down there, and proceeded to wait.

The lines were crazy long. First you had to wait in a line to get into a line to get into a registration line. Then you went into another line to get into an actual vaccination line then you went into another wait line before they released you to leave. A lot of lines. The volunteers had it down to a science though, and I had planned on waiting thus I had my Spotify playlist queued up, and it was nice enough outside to have my window rolled down a bit. Not exactly a hardship to sit in my truck and listen to music. It took about an hour to get into the registration paperwork line where you filled out your info, confirmed your appointment, and got all the paperwork sorted. They had 8 lanes of cars for this part, and they did one full lane at a time. The volunteers brought your paperwork, you filled it out, they checked it over, and then once everyone in the lane had their paperwork filled out, they’d release that lane to proceed to the next line to wait for the actual vaccination.

Whenever they let a lane go there was tons of cheering and honking and celebrating from both the people in cars and the volunteers. Which I’m kind of glad I got to experience that… it really brought home how momentous this really is. How much covid has completely derailed peoples lives, how much we’ve all lost, and what a relief it is to have a vaccine available and feel like we have a light at the end of the tunnel. The feeling was jubilant, and hopeful, like maybe just maybe there will be an end to this at some point. It was one of those moments that you won’t forget, when you experience something with so many other people on a mass scale like that. I think if I’d just had an appointment by myself I would have been happy about it, but it wouldn’t have struck me in such a big emotional way. Sitting in my truck for 2 hours was worth it for that memory, I think.

So, one shot down, and I have an appointment April 10th for the second dose. I’m pretty freakin pumped. Get me back on an airplane ASAP. I’ve got places to go and horses to see.

In other weekend news, Presto is officially an Ocala kid. He arrived on Friday night, having caught a ride with another trainer leaving from the Dallas area that morning, since Megan didn’t have any room on her trailer. They drove straight through, which at about 15 hours was definitely Presto’s longest trailer ride to date but he seemed to arrive in good shape and wasn’t stressed. Megan arrived Saturday morning, got her horses settled, then went and picked him up and brought him over to join them at Ocala Jockey Club. They’ve got dressage rings, jump rings, a racetrack to gallop on, tons of hacking, xc, turnouts… what more could a horse ask for?

So far the only update I’ve gotten is the crosstie picture (I have come to call these “proof of life” photos) but I have a friend nearby that’s gonna go see him at some point, so maybe I’ll have more media soon. I’m very jealous and majorly wishing I was in Ocala right now too. I can’t wait to hear about what all he gets up to while he’s there!

The US Event Horse Futurity also started posting the “starting” vlogs this weekend, led by yours truly.

Don’t forget that comments and shares = entries for the Presto’s Favorite Things prize pack that I’ll be giving away (which I still need to post details about, someone remind me another day). The next vlog in May is where things will really start getting interesting, since it’ll be more of Megan taking over at that point and talking through what she’s been doing, but this one is a recap of everything he’d done through like February basically.

Last but not least don’t forget that Baby Bets contest entries are due TODAY. I have a little bit of bad news in that it appears as though Daisy must have lost her pregnancy at some point after her 60 day check. Michelle noticed that she just wasn’t looking as big as she should at this stage, so she scanned her and unfortunately there’s no baby in there. So we’re down to 6 foals expected this year. Definitely a bummer, but luckily there are still a lot to look forward to. Get those Baby Bets in before the end of the day if you want a shot at the $100 gift card!