Is it surprising that so many Americans are still waiting until it's available locally to get their shots?

Not really. There really aren’t that many heavily populated areas for how much space we have in the US. Where I grew up our nearest neighbor was a mile down a dirt road. Places like that don’t have hospitals with freezers capable of the low temperatures needed to keep the vaccine in, and with all the questions raised about the J&J shot right now it might be months before they even have access to that one.