Transferring to Ft. Detrick/ Relo Help Please :) (Germantown, Frederick: transplants, rental)

[NOVAmtneer82]

270 traffic at 3-4pm on a friday from frederick to gaithersburg shouldn't be too bad at all, slightly heavy but it won't be like the 270 outbound parking lot heading towards frederick from DC

gaithersburg to dulles at 5:30 is another story. first you will have to deal with AWFUL traffic where 270 runs into the beltway around Bethesda and then into Northern Virginia (270 usually backs up several miles before this), it's taken me a solid half an hour to forty five minutes to get from here to the GW parkway right across the river in VA, probably total about four or five miles. Traffic will then be jammed on the Beltway around Tysons but you will see sign to use the Dulles Airport Access road which as its name implies is for airport bound traffic only, after this point you should find it to be a smooth ride to the airport.

With going to Dulles its not the drive on the airport access road that is the hard part, its just merely getting to that damn road. Good luck with your trip and hope you learn a lot about this area its a great place to live! (minus the traffic)

[carolina_guy]

Originally Posted by jfronz

270 traffic at 3-4pm on a friday from frederick to gaithersburg shouldn't be too bad at all, slightly heavy but it won't be like the 270 outbound parking lot heading towards frederick from DC

gaithersburg to dulles at 5:30 is another story. first you will have to deal with AWFUL traffic where 270 runs into the beltway around Bethesda and then into Northern Virginia (270 usually backs up several miles before this), it's taken me a solid half an hour to forty five minutes to get from here to the GW parkway right across the river in VA, probably total about four or five miles. Traffic will then be jammed on the Beltway around Tysons but you will see sign to use the Dulles Airport Access road which as its name implies is for airport bound traffic only, after this point you should find it to be a smooth ride to the airport.

With going to Dulles its not the drive on the airport access road that is the hard part, its just merely getting to that damn road. Good luck with your trip and hope you learn a lot about this area its a great place to live! (minus the traffic)

Good stuff jfronz, thanks.

The drive from Dulles to Frederick today was very pleasant. I left Avis Rental Car at about 10:30am and arrived in Frederick around 11:15am. I loved all the plantations, vineyards, and estate sized homes and property. I had some time before my interview, so took a drive up Market Street from South to 7th. Very quaint indeed. I plan on going over to Carol (Carol Park is it?) tomorrow and try to drive around Frederick as much as possible.

I'm gonna head over to Edo's Japanese Steakhouse tonight for some sushi because it's conveniently across the street. I'll report on it later.

What should I do for lunch tomorrow? Anything unique or to die for? Also, does anyone know of any good live music at a bar tomorrow night (Thursday?)

I like what little I've seen today and the interviews went great. So far so good!

Thanks all!!

[NOVAmtneer82]

Glad you made it to Frederick, that drive from Dulles (im assuming you took Rt. 15) is a very nice one. I just noticed you are from Cornelius NC, I am not trying to get off topic but I have family that live on the lake down there, nice area. I think you will find the Frederick area as sort of a Huntersville/Cornelius on steroids, although Frederick does have more of a small city feel with its historic downtown. I'll quit rambling because I really don't know much more about Frederick (I live in Northern VA) but the parts I have seen seem very nice. Good luck with everything

[carolina_guy]

Originally Posted by jfronz

Glad you made it to Frederick, that drive from Dulles (im assuming you took Rt. 15) is a very nice one. I just noticed you are from Cornelius NC, I am not trying to get off topic but I have family that live on the lake down there, nice area. I think you will find the Frederick area as sort of a Huntersville/Cornelius on steroids, although Frederick does have more of a small city feel with its historic downtown. I'll quit rambling because I really don't know much more about Frederick (I live in Northern VA) but the parts I have seen seem very nice. Good luck with everything

Thanks. It's funny you should mention Huntersville and Cornelius as this is my question from the original post:

For starters, is anyone familiar with Charlotte, NC, and if so do you know of Huntersville/Cornelius/Davidson? Frederick seems to be much like these suburb towns of Charlotte.

So I think you and I are on the same page. Same feel, but Frederick is larger. It actually reminds me of Davidson, which is also in the Lake Norman area. So on that note, where is the closest recreational lake for nice boats, skiing, wakeboarding, and lounging? During the summer, of course.

[NOVAmtneer82]

The largest lake within easy access to the Washington DC metro area is Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland. AWESOME lake community with no shortage of recreational activities during the day and of course plenty of decent restaurants at night. There are a lot of cabin and vacation home rentals up there, but at 2.5 hours from Washington (probably about 2 from Frederick) it is a very easy day trip.

[NOVAmtneer82]

There are also several others in Virginia, Lake Anna comes to mind but I am not very familiar with that one. Other people might have more information but I think it is around 2-2.5 hours away as well.

[carolina_guy]

Well, I got a lot done today and was very impressed with most things I saw. Truth is, I love the area! Nothing really struck me on Lee and Wilson Pl. so I continued down Rosemont to Yellow Springs and explored a bit. I drove up the mountain for some ways before turning around, but that area is beautiful. I really liked Rocky Spring Rd., the Whittier condos area, Tuscanney, Old Farm, and the Walter Martz area. Drove down Indian Springs a bit and then cut back over on Opossumtowne Pike. Some gorgeous homes in the foot hills. I didn't quite make it up to Yellow Springs, so how is that town?

I thought Willowbrooke and North Crossing was a nice community.

I ate lunch at 5 Guys at the Promenade. Downtown Frederick is so nice! There are so many shops that my wife will absolutely love it!

I think my favorite place today was Wormans Mill. This was such a well planned community with beautiful homes and very detailed and lush landscaping. I really hope we can find a rental home in this community because it is exactly what we are looking for.

The area around Hayward Rd/Willow Rd/Maranatha Community Church/Frederick Community College was nice as well.

I checked out Walkersville and liked it. I also went and "got lost" down 194/Woodsboro Pike. Woodsboro seemed very quaint and very nicely decorated with Christmas.

Drove through Libertytown and Mt. Airy that were nice.

Next to Wormans Mill, I really liked Lake Linganore in New Market. It was unfortunately dark by the time I made it there, but I got a pretty good feel for the community. Some really pretty homes and well planned community.

So all in all, today was a great day and I got a very good idea of the area. Tomorrow I'm gonna go check out Middletown and make my way down to Gaithersburg, then it's off to the airport.

Thanks to everybody for your help, and I'd appreciate any comments on the areas I mentioned in this post--positives or negatives.

Oh yeah, one thing I definitely wanted to comment on was how friendly everyone is up here, which is in contrast to some of things I have read. I waved at people, smiled, said hello, etc to many people today in different settings and was ALWAYS replied to in kind. I also purposefully didn't initiate a gesture to see if I would be gestered to first, and in most cases I was. So for those of you who think that people around here are jerks or snooty or whatever, maybe you should take a look at yourself first. I had no problems and was quite impressed with the friendly attitude in the Frederick area.

[histmaj]

Im glad you liked the area. All of the areas which you mentioned are very nice, one suggestion though. The area around Amber Meadows, or Maranatha Church can have some problems at times. Not a big crime area by any means, but just some food for thought. For your drive to Gaithersburg, if you have not already left...a nice route (which will take a little longer) is to go down rt.355 south. It goes through some rural areas, but you will be able to see, Urbana (southern Frederick County), and all of the places along 355 in Montgomery County, including Gaithersburg. Good luck!

[catanded]

We currently live in Walkersville and my husband works on Fort Detrick. We lived on post for 2.5 years while he was active duty and moved to Walkersville when he got out 3 years ago. It's about a 10 minute commute for him....15 in "traffic." It's been a terrific area and very convenient to downtown Frederick! We had dogs up until a couple of years ago when they passed, but we always found that Heritage Park, about a mile from our townhouse, was a great place for them. The Catoctin Mountains are only about a 15 minute drive from here and the dogs always loved getting out there and hiking with us. We enjoy getting out and visiting all of the sites and places around the Baltimore/DC/Frederick areas. We are in a very convenient place to all of them! Actually, our townhouse in Colony Village is currently on the market. This has been a great community for us. We're looking to move to a bigger place, though, as we have 3 young kids now. If you are still looking in to housing, drop me a line. My husband or I would be happy to share buy/rent info on our townhouse (3 level, 4bdrm, 2.5 bath). And, best of luck to you! This is a wonderful area to live!

[carolina_guy]

Well, I got back to Charlotte late last night and again, I had a wonderful trip. Histmaj, thanks so much for the advice of taking 355 to Gaithersburg. I drove into Urbana and thought it was A Very NICE area. I now have Urbana at the top of my list for places to rent.

But I must say, after finding Kentlands in Gaithersburg, I was blown away. The Kentlands area is exactly the type of place we are looking for. I just loved the homes and loved how convenient everything is. It is a very well planned community and from my understanding, only a 15-20 minute drive to Frederick. I stopped at one of the realties and got some information and they will be helping us house hunt should we move to the area.

Before I headed into that direction, I drove up to Middletown, which also was very pleasant. I spoke to a Realtor in that area who will also be assisting us in a home search.

So I think the following sums up pretty well my favorite places in order from most to least (but the "least" is still good):

1. Kentlands
2. Urbana
3. Wormans Mill
4. Lake Linganore
5. The area around Rocky Springs off of Yellow Springs Road and then on down in the Indian Springs area.
6. Walkersville or Middletown

All of these areas will have their own advantages and I think we will be happy with any of these places. Just need to find a home we're happy with and go from there. Hopefully I get a call/email/letter in the next week regarding an offer for the position.

Thank you all again for your help!!

P.S. Just wanted to comment that at no time when I was in Maryland did I feel insecure or threatened by crime. Everyone was quite friendly and it seems that where ever the crime may be, it is isolated and would not overflow into the nicer areas very often.