Man drives from Oklahoma to get vaccine at Benton-Franklin County Fairgrounds
KENNEWICK, Wash. — Hundreds of people waited for hours to get their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine at the Benton-Franklin Fairgrounds on Monday.
One 84 year old Washington native tells Action News he drove all the way from Oklahoma to get his vaccine.
"I set my mileage at zero miles when I left it's now 1,777 and I've only driven it to Richland, I drove almost 1,800 miles in two and a half days," Duane Renberger said.
Renberger was car number five and says he's originally from Richland.
"I was taking my wife to get her vaccine last week and she is an Oklahoma native and I'm still a Washington native and they wouldn't give me a shot in Oklahoma because the vaccine is allocated by so many people in the state," Renberger said.
So he decided to leave Thursday and got into town on Saturday afternoon.
"I drove about 800 miles a day and when you're just a kid you can do that," Renberger said.
He says he will stay with his daughter in Richland until he gets his second shot at the end of next month.
A majority of the people Action News spoke with say the wait was worth it.
"Every minute of the wait was worth it because now I'm on the road to being vaccinated and that's a good thing," Guy Cook said.
Guy Cook is from Walla Walla and he was first in line on Monday morning and says he's happy he "got it done."
"I got up really early to come down here to do this didn't anticipate being first in line but I'm kind of glad that I did now that I see how many cars," Cook said.
500 people got their vaccine on Monday and officials say they had to cut the line off at 11 a.m.
Vaccines at the mass vaccine site will continue all week and organizers say they have 3,000 vaccines to use this week.
On site officials are asking everyone to be patient and to be prepared to wait.
Organizers say not a single patient showed any adverse reactions to the vaccine.
