Above Photo: The Bay in Port Orchard

This is the summer of my 50th birthday; I didn’t want to spend it on the road, where I don’t know anyone. Don’t get me wrong – I’m a gregarious extrovert who happily converses with everyone I meet, and I love making new friends – but it’s just not the same as communing with people you know well and love even more.

There is very little RV camping in the Seattle metropolitan area. I knew spending an entire summer was going to take some creativity. I started planning the trip over a year ago, and it was simple to make Washington State Park camping reservations online, which can be booked nine months in advance. The maximum stay in Washington parks is two weeks, so I needed alternatives. Along with “moochdocking” in friends’ driveways along the way, I booked private campgrounds too.

At the end of April, driving from northwest Arkansas to Washington, I exhaled with that warm sense of homecoming as I drove I-90 west over Snoqualmie Pass – a route I have driven too many times to count.

After three years on the road, not needing a map or GPS for navigation is comforting, and liberating. First stop: Kitsap County, Port Orchard to be exact, home to Trudy & Izzy, and Rhonda & Ken.

The Kitsap Peninsula

As Seattle pushes ever outward, the Kitsap Peninsula to the west is becoming more and more popular with commuters. The Southworth/Fauntleroy ferry, a 15-minute drive from my friends’ Port Orchard homes, will get you to West Seattle in about 25 minutes. If you drive a half hour to Bremerton, that hour-long ferry ride will drop you off right in the heart of downtown Seattle.

I moochdocked for most of the month of May in Trudy and Izzy’s driveway – a little slice of bucolic heaven with flowers and chickens and goats and dogs and cats.

There were fresh eggs, and a fenced yard in the back for the dogs to run around. Just down the road less than five minutes away is Howe Farm, an off-leash dog park operated by Kitsap County, with fields and forests for doggie frolic.

I must confess we did very little walking on the leash, and we all loved it.

With blissfully little to do, I cleaned and re-organized Nellie and Toad from top to bottom, making three Goodwill runs. With Ken’s help we made some repairs. There were lunches and visits from friends from across the water.

I practiced Ukelele and showed Trudy’s granddaughter a few chords.

Rhonda hosted several sumptuous meals at her home – steaks from the local butcher and oysters from the Sunday farmers market, harvested just down the road in Allyn. One evening we feasted on cod caught the previous day by Rhonda’s son, Wes, on a charter fishing trip.

There were many games of cornhole and Skip Bo.

A few days out of the month I sojourned to Seattle for doctor appointments, tacking on visits with friends from the city, like Friday night dinner and karaoke at the Lake City Eagles Hall with Natalie, Maja, and Rich, and dinner at the new Ethan Stowell restaurant with Molly and Liz. On one particular Saturday I chuckled about the eclectic variety that Seattle, and my friends in particular, have to offer, as I went from Marivic’s baby shower at a Kung Fu center, a birthday party at a ping-pong bar (Happy Birthday, Marsha!),

and the opera with Liz all in one day.

Izzy works for the Mariners, and I caught a ride with him a couple of times to games, even getting to see Loren and his family briefly for drinks first.

My prior RV traveling companion, Kathy, who sold her rig this year after four years on the road and is trying out the Olympic Peninsula as her new home, met us for a game, and it was very special to me to introduce old and new friends.

Trudy and Izzy packed up their trailer and we all set out for Belfair State Park for a week. As we booked well in advance, we got choice waterfront sites.

Family and friends like Judi & Ivan and Annmarie visited throughout the week.

We ate well, took walks, read books, and lounged in reclining chairs.

From Belfair I headed to the Shelton Bluegrass Festival for three days, where friends from Sequim came by for a sunny Sunday afternoon of music.

As I anticipated, the month of May absolutely flew by. Relaxing, good times with friends usually do.

Up Next: The Columbia River Gorge, the Olympic Peninsula, boondocking in “Cicely, Alaska,” and driveway surfing in Burien.