Camp Shelby Mississippi is located near Hattiesburg MS home of University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles and NFL Quarterback Brett Favre. Depicted as the yellow star on the map below, Camp Shelby is over an hour north of the coast. Despite this inland distance one could still see damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in the forest surrounding the camp. The weather when I first arrived mid September was incredibly hot and humid. With very little exertion, I would be dripping in sweat. I thought that it went away, till Kendra came down to visit at the end of October. When we stepped out of the airport in New Orleans, she said it was so humid that breathing was difficult.
There are of course unique foods in the south not common to the average North Westerner. In the chow hall was grits every morning. And collard greens and fried okra were dinner time staples. There was a variety of main courses that we rotated through in the 6 weeks we spent there, but most of the dishes shared the characteristics of being flat, breaded and fried. (Lots of catfish) Even the vegetables were breaded and fried if you chose the fried okra. Does it still count as “eating your vegetable” if they are breaded? The biscuits and gravy were my favorite breakfast food. I had it just about every morning and I think I am still carrying some of it around with me 4 months later. The bottom picture is the Chow hall where I ate.
There were lots of skunks around. I got use to seeing them, but I would still cross to the other side of the street when I would see them in the mornings while jogging. This one in the picture didn’t seem to mind the barrier/security wire we strung around our operations center. I also saw a lot of deer. They are much smaller there, but the size the deer are lacking is made up for by the insects. BIG BUGS! Something we don’t see much in Idaho that I saw here were turtles. There was one spot at the edge of a pond that was almost a guarantee to see some turtles and they were more than a foot long. Very cool!
Accommodations were adequate. After all it’s the army not a vacation resort. The mattress was a nice change, the three weeks in the desert south of Boise was slept on a canvas cot. Lucky for me, after 10 years of working the early morning shift at UPS, I’m conditioned to sleep on just about anything at anytime. We were issued two sheets and an old wool green Army blanket. I opted just to continue to sleep in my sleeping bag.
These laundry trailers were a new concept to me. They were open 24/7, we just had to provide the detergent. One trailer was full of dryers and the other was full of washers, a truly mobile laundry mat. 
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