Yeah Camp Shelby!

Sorry for the lack of recent updates, there is Internet available but finding time when I am awake enough to walk over there and finding a buddy is difficult. So I am writing this on my computer in the barracks and will save it and upload it later. On The 16th or 17th of December I finally left Ft Belvoir to go to Camp Shelby. We flew into the Laurel - Hattiesburg Airport. It is SMALL! There are two gates and the plane had around 20 seats. There were 7 people on the plane. We flew from Reagan in DC to Memphis, TN. Our plane to Memphis arrived 30 minutes late because of an A/C problem. So we figured we had another 30 minutes to get to our terminal at the opposite end of the airport. Just before we got out of the first terminal, we heard the FINAL BOARDING CALL for our flight - oh noes!! So we start running, I had a heavy back pack and a bulky laptop case, and it has been a long time since I was in any kind of decent physical condition... We finally arrive at the gate, sweating. And we wait in the doorway to the tarmac for another plane to take off, and as we are getting on our plane, we see our duffel bags - Yeah! And we sit on the plane for another 10 minutes... grrrr. When we got to Camp Shelby, we stayed with the Replacement Company for a couple of days. The day we arrived we watched 7 hours of briefings in about 3 :) The next day we were told to start in processing with Medical at 0900. When we got there we were told to come back at 1300 - i.e. Nap Time! Medical in processing was easy mostly because we already did all of it at Camp McCready. All I needed was another shot in a series, Hep A I think. Then we went on to in process personnel. We didn't even start the first station, because we didn't have orders to Camp Shelby (we still haven't finished in processing, we have orders to Vicksburg, MS - the unit's Headquarters) that night, Thursday, we packed up and got to our Unit, the 168th ENG BDE. We are then told that we need to arrange transportation home, or wherever, for leave starting Saturday (in two days), and we also needed to be ready to go to Wal-Mart to get supplies to put in a footlocker to put into the conex (shipping container) that is leaving the next day! We were able to get it all done, surprisingly. The next morning we tried to in process, but the lady’s computer was down. She wanted us to come back later in the day but First Sergeant said that was not going to happen because we were going to be released at 1500! The flight I booked left New Orleans at 8ish on Saturday. The people I wound up sharing a ride with, decided to leave when we were released, so we arrived in New Orleans at around 5. Since we had plenty of time we decided to hit Bourbon Street. We went to Rockfish Grill, Yummy. When the waiter took our orders, he called me sir! So I wound up getting a free Dessert. It was the best Bread pudding EVER. So at Dinner I started off with a nice Mojito. After dinner we walked up and down the street and found some other nice drinks. One place had 2 for 1 Daiquiris ;D One for each hand! Fun. At the hotel we decided that we would stay out until midnight. We headed back at 10... Dylan was getting into New Orleans at midnight so I invited him to stay at the hotel with us, but he thought we were staying on Bourbon Street and he didn't want to be that far away from the airport. So we met up at the Airport the next day, after security found the Gerber on my belt that I forgot about, oops. My flight was delayed by 30 minutes, and Dylan's was delayed by about an hour. I was still a little hung over, first ever and because I was not properly hydrated. So my plans for being home mostly included cleaning my room and relaxing. But no, I had to clean the house, and mostly by myself because Dylan would conveniently disappear. And then Mum wanted the Christmas Decorations put up. The night before I had to return to Camp Shelby, I threw stuff out of the way to make my room appear to be cleanish.