Germantown Life

So, what is life like in Germantown? Well, there's a lot of traffic in certain spots. The worst is 270 with all the commuters... towards DC in the AM, and towards Frederick in the PM. The 270 exits in Gaithersburg and Germantown get a bit backed up during rush hour, too.

Since I moved here, the most prevalent crime story has been people getting hit by Metro buses in DC. I see a lot more car accidents here... about 3 in a week. The speed limit gets lax enforcement in general. It's 55 mph on 270 down here, but the flow of traffic is closer to 70 mph.

There are several huge recreational complexes around town. The towns of Germantown and Gaithersburg sort of just run into each other, so it's hard to know where the borders are. One way to tell is Gaithersburg has green on white street signs with a "G" on them.

The biggest laugh is how quickly schools get delayed or canceled. North Dakotans can hang their hats on trudging through 6 to 12 inches of snow. Around here, schools close if there's a couple inches. Part of the deal is that the snow is the wet sticky stuff that leads to icy roads instead of the light fluffy stuff that blows everywhere.

Germantown itself isn't much larger than Grand Forks. There are little shopping complexes on the main corners. For example, Milestone Center is pretty similar to 32nd St. There's a Kohl's, Target, Wal-Mart, Giant (grocery), Best Buy, Pet Smart and other shoppes and businesses.