#39 Porterville CA

Well, here we go:

Cokie has been the voice of our blogs so far but she thought I should tell the Porterville story as I actually lived there when it was, back in1960, a small farm town. I graduated from good old PUHS (that’s right PU) in that year but never really connected with the school or the town. What I remember was a kind of laid back, almost sleepy, atmosphere in a town of about 6,000. Now it’s a vibrant, busy burg of nearly 60,000! Truthfully I really couldn’t recognize much of anything! I maybe found the old high school but there are now at least two plus a college.

Driving east out of town we found an Army Corps of Engineers Reservoir known as Success Lake on the Tule River. We love the Corps campgrounds because they always have all of the amenities at half price for us two old P’s in a Pod!

One day we took a ride out through Success Valley to discover the Tule Indian community. They have settled in the winding canyons along the river and creeks. Their’s is a community of very mixed structures and delightful local art murals. Cokie took lots of pictures painted on the school bus stops. They were whimsical and delightful! The entrance to their world was worthy of a stop and photos for the sculptures and the story. They, thankfully, have an apparently very successful casino which is helpful in providing a higher standard of living for their community. We also noted that the signs around town for people running for the tribal counsel were ALL women! It was a long and beautiful drive thru the green countyside back to our pretty but not too crowded campground.

We took a short ride to see beautiful downtown Springville just east of Success Lake. Nice little town with available ice cream. What more do you need?