Yesterday was a travel day so I didn’t post. On Wednesday, Donna rode her bike from Pine Near RV Park in Winthrop down the Twisp-Winthrop Eastside Road to Twisp and back – about a 20-mile ride. The road doesn’t have any shoulder but the traffic is so light it was okay. The weather was nice – around 80 degrees and sunny. I wanted to check out the campgrounds at Pearrygin Lake State Park, so I took ride on the Spyder.

The state park has two campgrounds right on the lake. The road takes you to the west campground first. I stopped there and was surprised at how small the lake looked. I thought it was much larger as people water ski on it.

Most of the campsites here appeared to be dry camping areas although I saw a few with electric and water. I rode over to the east campground. As I descended from the road down to the lake level campground, I saw the lake was larger than it appeared from the west campground.

The lake extends well to the east of the east campground. The east campground had a mix of sites and I saw some with full hook-ups. There were a few big rigs there. The website says there are 76 standard sites – dry camping – and a few with electricity and water and 50 sites with full hook-ups.

That evening, we walked to downtown Winthrop and had drinks and dinner at Copper Glance. This is a bar that features a wide variety of top-shelf liquor and an eclectic menu. I enjoyed a martini made with Chopin potato vodka while Donna sipped a Gose beer. Donna ordered an Asian cabbage salad that was excellent and followed it up with chicken satay skewers. I had the Reuben sandwich with house-made sauerkraut and dressing. It was tasty.

Thursday morning we were ready for the road by 10am. Rather than go through the busy Main Street in Winthrop, I followed Donna’s bike route on the eastside road to Twisp. We hit WA20 there and followed it to WA153. This route took us south along the Methow River. The traffic was light and it was easy going except for two bridges that were single-lane due to road work. We hit US97 at Pateros and followed it south along the Columbia River. The source of the Columbia is in the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. It flows through Washington then forms the border between Washington and Oregon before it empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Klamath and the Columbia are the only rivers east of the Cascade Mountains to flow directly into the Pacific Ocean.

We reached our destination, Crescent Bar RV Resort, on the east bank of the Columbia River (map) at 12:45 PM. I’d already booked our reservation through the Thousand Trails website. While we were waiting to check in, our friend TJ Muller was pulling out of the park in his truck. He stopped to say hi. Then his wife Julie and our friends Lance and Boni pulled up and welcomed us to the park. They were on their way to the post office in Quincy. Lance and Boni suggested we check out site 43. They said it was a long back-in site that would fit our rig. Thousand Trails RV Parks are usually first-come first-served for site selection. You can book a number of days in advance, but it doesn’t allow you to hold a specific site. The host checking us in told us how to get to site 43 and said she thought it was our best choice.

There were a number of other sites that could fit or length, but they were 30 amp electric service. We wanted a 50 amp site. The forecast calls for temperatures in the 90s during our stay so we want to be able to run both roof air conditioners.

When we pulled up to site 43 we saw a sign that said it was reserved for a group. What? The host not only told us to go to 43, she handed us a sheet of paper with a list of park rules. Rule #18 said no sites could be held or reserved. I called the welcome center and asked what the deal was. The woman said she would check into it. We made a couple of laps of the park – the only other 50 amp site that was large enough was closed due to a problem with the electrical panel.

Eventually the woman from the welcome center and the park manager arrived at site 43. They removed the sign and said the reserved sign wasn’t authorized and we were free to take the site. We backed in and set up.

On either side of site 43 are sites that are privately owned. Thousand Trails sells a portion of their sites for private use. Apparently the two owners of these sites often invite friends to spend the weekend with them and try to block site 43 for their friends. It may get interesting when they show up.

The park is right on the bank of the river. We took a walk in the evening and checked it out. Donna had already walked down once and saw a beach area. She also stopped at the club house and met the owners of an Alpine Coach two sites down from us – Dewey and Doris from Nebraska.

We walked back to our site along a paved path. Sometimes I have to wonder who planned the park’s layout. The path led us to steps that ended in the back of someone’s site! Walking through an occupied site is poor etiquette, but other than backtracking to the beginning of the  path, there wasn’t any way out.

Back at the coach, Donna prepared panko-crusted fresh rock fish filets we picked up at the IGA in Winthrop. One of the filets formed the outline of a fish.

The pan-fried fish was delicious served with steamed broccoli.

This morning we plan to play pickleball with TJ, Julie, Lance and Boni. We haven’t played since we last saw them in Bend, Oregon.