May 15-19, 2008
Norco is a small Louisiana town about twenty-five miles west of New Orleans. It’s quite a pretty town, with well-kept houses and lots of trees and green lawns and flowering bushes in the yards. Surrounded by the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain, the Shell Oil refinery, and the Bonnet Carre Spillway, there’s no place for the town to grow.
The town has been affected by several major explosions over the years from the Shell Oil refinery right on its boundary. Norco is located in an area along the Mississippi known as the “Chemical Corridor” or the Cancer Corridor” because of the number of petrochemical plants located along the route. Environmental and civic groups claim that the entire area has continued to have chronic releases of chemical pollutants to the air and water over the years.
Judith Schwalb was our couchsurfing host for three restful nights. As a result of health issues, Judith has been confined to a wheelchair for the last five years, but it doesn’t appear to have slowed her down at all. With her two dogs Joey Jr. and Asia to keep her company, Judith has a retrofitted handicapped accessible van that allows her to get anywhere she wants to go.
She drives to the library, post office, bank, grocery store, and does any errand she wants to, unaided by anyone. It was incredibly impressive to see. She’s just as independent in her house, with the entire house being set up for her easy access.
The dogs, Joey Jr. and Asia, are great companions. We were warned about Joey Jr., as he gets the “happy pee pees”, but he fell in love with Chelsea, and after getting over his initial happiness and excitement, and after one or two small spots to clean up, he became a regular visitor to our room.
Judith told us that Asia only likes men, and has been know to growl at women, but again, no dog stands a chance against Chelsea’s persuasive powers. Sure enough, Asia became a regular visitor to our room too. Asia was very shy and quiet, and hated having her photo taken. She would actually turn and walk out of the room if Chelsea took her picture!
Our first night at Judith’s we slept for over thirteen hours. We weren’t kidding when we told Darryl (our New Orleans couchsurfing host) that he’d worn us out! She told us later that she was quite concerned, and that she was tempted to knock on the door and awaken us. She did let us sleep, much to our appreciation. We slept ten hours the next night!
Judith was terrific – she took us to the library to get more books for the road; she took us to a Dollar General to do an errand, and to the post office to send off a few packages. On the way to the Dollar General she took us over the Bonnet Carre Spillway.
The Spillway allows floodwaters from the Mississippi River to flow into Lake Pontchartrain and from there into the Gulf of Mexico, and its floodgates had been opened in mid April for only the ninth time since 1937. Closed only a few days before we arrived, the area was still flooded when Judith, our host, brought us by to look at it. When it’s not flooded, it doubles as a recreation area for boaters and hunters.
We stayed with Judith three nights and two full days, and in addition to the errands we did, she took us out to experience a Louisiana ‘snowball’. The rest of the world would call it a snow cone, but Louisiana folks swear that snowballs are far superior to snow cones. We walked over to a local place, with Judith whizzing along in her wheelchair. I was nearly on a run to keep up with her!
The snowballs were good, and with their bizarre colors, they leave the tongue looking like something out of a medical dictionary.
Norco was the first time I really heard the southern manner of calling older people ‘Miss’ or ‘Mr’. Whenever a person speaks to someone older, it is expected that the older person will be addressed as ‘Mr. Toby’, or ‘Miss Judith’ – whatever the person’s name is, preceded by Mr. or Miss. It really tickled me to hear myself addressed as Miss Rosemary. It’s considered proper manners, and it shows respect. We’ve since heard it all throughout the South (and we did hear it on our 2006 tour as well, just not as much).
We had one of those “only in a small town” experiences with Judith. The day we went to the post office, Judith paid by debit card and asked for $20 cash back. We all finished up our business and headed out. Sometime later in the afternoon, Judith got a phone call. It was the postal employee who had waited on Judith earlier in the day. She was checking out at the end of the day, and found out that she was $20 over in her cash. She remembered that Judith had asked for cash back, called her to see if she got it, then brought the money over to Judith when she got off work! You’ve gotta love it…
Another funny Judith story – she told us of nearly getting into an argument with a guy from New Jersey who was apparently putting a relative in a nursing home, or a mental health facility. She was giving him a hard time about it, and he finally said, “Don’t y’all put your people in homes?” “Oh no,” she replied. “Have y’all ever been to the South? Haven’t y’all seen all those people sitting on the front porches, waving? Those’re our crazy people!”
We loved Judith’s feisty attitude, and her salty sense of humor. Life wasn’t dull when were talking to Judith. We’re really fortunate that she was so gracious, and that she had time and space to let two very tired cyclists get some decent rest.
The day we left she bundled us up in the van and took us over the I-310 bridge (we couldn’t ride it on the bikes) and waited patiently and interestedly while we got all packed up and ready to go. One of my last memories was seeing Judith sitting there in her wheelchair near her van, waving us off.