By Anna Bedell

Bristol experienced an influx of people who lined up in their cars to get Covid tests at Centre Square in downtown on North Main Street on Tuesday.

It was a sight-to-behold as cars formed a snake pattern that was never-ending. 

Drive-thru became a whole new meaning for me although there was was no food waiting for me at the end of the line.

I had been sick for a few days with what I suspected to be a reaction to the booster shot. I can almost hear the antivaxxers chiming in, “ I told you so.”

At it’s peak, my fever spiked to 102 f and I can tell you I felt like someone dropped me off in the Mohave desert and left me there for days. 

I was required to take a covid test so that I can go back to work.

Upon arrival at 2:14 p.m., and after some confusion, I finally found the end of the line. It was definitely no stairway to heaven, that’s for sure. 

In the first hour, I entertained myself on Instagram, laughing at all the crazy videos that people post. I often wonder as many of us surely do, “ who thinks of these things?”

By the second hour, boredom set in so I decided to jump out of my car and take photos. It was a sight-to-behold indeed. 

People were watching me from their cars because they obviously had nothing else to do either. I became cheap entertainment. 

Evelyn Irrizzard, a 50-year-old New Britain resident, was waiting behind me in line.

“I arrived at 11:45a.m. because they were opening at 12:00p.m.,”  said Irrizzard. “I went back to New Britain to get my laptop and got back at 1:45p.m.” 

She had been patiently waiting with her teenage daughter.

People were being impatient by blocking the cars trying to cross over to the end of the snake line. 

By now it was 2 1/2 hours that I had been waiting, patiently, I might add. Although I was dying to go to the bathroom. 

The streetlights came on, and I’m still waiting.

I was giving my partner-in-crime, Rit Carter, one of our TBE reporters, a play by play of my surroundings by text messages.

“24 cars away from the finish line” I texted Carter. I felt like it was a Tortoise race to see who gets to the finish line first. 

He texted back. “Go Team.” 

It was now down to ten cars in front of me and Carter texted, “Go Team”  

My reply, “two cars in” and I get a “touch down’ response from Carter. 

At 5:01 I reached the finish line. It only took 2 hours and 56 minutes, but time flies when you’re having fun.

I now have to wait patiently for two days to get my results.