The Cliffs Valley
Q. Where are you from
A. Joan: We are both from Maryland. I grew up in a small town called Elkton.
Rick: And I grew up in Annapolis.
Q. How did you meet?
A. Rick: We met in our senior year at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. I was living with a fraternity brother above an antiques store, and Joan lived above the workshop with a couple of girls.
Joan: My roommate was waitressing at a motel where Rick was a night desk clerk. She would grab rides with him to the motel restaurant. So they started coming over to our place a lot and vice versa. That’s how it started!
Rick: She was an accounting major, and I was an economics major, and we had one class that overlapped. She was a better student than me.
Joan: We got married right after college graduation. Back then, everyone did!
Q. Where did you go next?
A. Joan: Rick went to graduate school right after college, and I got a job in Washington, D.C. When he finished, he moved to Washington. We spent our entire working lives in that area.
Q. How did you find The Cliffs?
A. Joan: My best friend lives in Woodruff, South Carolina. Her husband bought a round of golf at The Cliffs Valley in a charity auction in 1998, and he brought Rick to play. At the time, there wasn’t even a clubhouse. We thought that would be a good place to be.
Rick: We wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle at some point. So we watched The Cliffs grow over the years and add other communities. We liked that when you are a member of one club, you are a member of all seven communities. When we started thinking about retiring in 2008, we came down to look at property. First, we bought a homesite in Mountain Park, but then we found this house in The Cliffs Valley in 2013. We were still working at the time, so it was perfect for us.
Q. Do you play golf?
A. Joan: We play a lot of golf. I play in three ladies’ groups, and Rick plays in three men’s groups. We golf together on Sundays.
Rick: I play in some of the interclub competitions within The Cliffs and other neighboring clubs. So I get to see a lot of other courses.
Q. What else do you like to do?
A. Joan: We’ve volunteered a lot since we’ve been here. We do Adopt a Highway every quarter, and I work with Meals on Wheels. I’ve been involved with the Ladies Golf Association, and we’ve both been on committees at the Property Owners Association.
Rick: And we love to travel. It’s pretty easy to fly from here, and we’ve been to all of the continents and on a lot of European trips. Most recently, we visited Namibia and South Africa, and in a few weeks, we are taking a cruise from Iceland to Greenland and Canada.
Joan: We have a map upstairs that we put pins in for each place we visit. There is still a lot of world to see!
Q. How would you describe the community here?
A. Joan: It is very social and welcoming, with so many ways to be active. I think that’s what makes The Cliffs so special—the people.
Rick: It is full of good people. I can tell you story after story of people helping other people in a time of need. And little things too, like if you need a cup of sugar, you just call a neighbor.
This story was featured in Cliffs Living magazine. To see more stories like this one and learn more about The Cliffs, subscribe here.
