I live about 20 minutes from Rob, but in Montgomery County, not Howard County. We jokingly refer to Damascus as the West Virginia of Montgomery County. One of the nicest aspects of living here is the rural lifestyle, combined with easy access (on weekends, anyway) to DC, Baltimore and Frederick as well as 3 airports. I have enough land and woods around me that I bowhunt right behind my house and grow lots of good veggies. As much as many here dislike some (or all) aspects of DC, it has a lot going on (much of which is free) and is culturally diverse - lots of good ethnic restaurants of all types. Luckily, I don't have to suffer through DC traffic much as I work 10 minutes away from where I live without the need to drive on the Interstate.
Another good thing is that there's a really good audio tech down the road a bit who's pretty handy with a soldering iron.