When it Come to Adventure, the Fords Have Done it All

David and Arline Ford’s life together has been filled with adventure—from hiking, biking and mountain climbing to skiing and camping… They have done it all!

The Fords have known each other since they were teens living in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. David was a native and Arline, who was born in Miami, Florida, grew up in Baltimore.

“We lived in the same town, went to the same school, attended the same college, and worked for the same county,” Arline explained. “It was a while before we actually got together, but we’ve been married for 52 years.”

They both attended Towson State Teacher’s College, which is now Towson University, and earned degrees in education—Arline in elementary education and David in both elementary and physical education.

During her 30 years in elementary education, Arline taught students from age three up to sixth grade. In addition to classroom teaching, she served as an elementary school principal and administrator.

“I always said I didn’t speak middle school,” Arline laughed. “I loved every single minute of it!”

As David proudly added, Arline was also president of the Principal’s Association of Baltimore County—for both elementary and high school—and in 1991, she was chosen as the National Distinguished Principal for the State of Maryland, which involved a trip to Washington, D.C.

David’s experience in education was a bit more varied. He began his 28-year teaching career after serving two years in the U.S. Army as a cryptographer. He taught in elementary school, middle school and high school.

“My first five years were in sixth grade, and then I switched to physical education. That was the biggest thing in my life, and I was fortunate to do very well,” David said. “I chose the right line of work, and it worked out perfectly. I liked going to school every day.”

Arline recalled a time when David came to her school as a substitute PE teacher. She noted that her office wasn’t far from the gym, and she could hear the kids squealing and laughing. “They paid me money to do that,” David added. “I’d have done it for free.”

Not surprisingly, David was always physically active. He played soccer and lacrosse in college and was elected to Towson’s Athletic Hall of Fame. He also has an exercise room there named after him. He went on to coach both sports at the high school level.

When it came to involvement in competitive sports, it took Arline awhile to find her niche. When she did, it turned out to be running and biking. She became addicted to both. As Arline explained, she and David were into skiing, and she decided she needed to get in better shape. She started running on the high school track near where David coached.

“It was only a quarter of a mile long and, at first, I could only run about a quarter of that distance,” Arline remembered. “Finally, one day I ran a whole mile without stopping!” David told her she was going to hurt herself, but that didn’t discourage her.

“I never ran a step until I was 39,” Arline said. “It became my passion. You don’t need a partner. Just put on your shoes and go. I loved it!”

Eventually, Arline began competing in 5K and 10K races, and, before long, she was competing in marathons, starting with Maryland and moving on to other locations, including the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C.

“The Boston Marathon was the last one I ran, and I qualified partly because I had gotten older,” Arline laughed. “Boston was really the highlight.”

To his credit, David did train for, and accompany, Arline on the JFK Fifty Miler, where they finished side by side.

According to Arline, the interest in biking began when David retired, and his faculty gifted him with a 10-speed bicycle.

“We weren’t into biking, but it became addicting,” she commented. David admits he had difficulty managing the 10-speed bicycle, so he traded it in, and they both got what they referred to as “city bikes,” which had gears on the handle and bigger tires. Eventually, they got lighter bikes with thinner tires, and Arline started going on long distance biking trips.

“Every year, I participated in these trips called ‘Cycle Across Maryland’. They were really interesting, because we got to see different parts of the state that we normally wouldn’t see,” she explained. “It was five or six days and was usually three or four hundred miles.”

One day during each trip, Arline would volunteer to do a 100-mile ride, which took between seven and eight hours.

“I always claimed to be the team photographer,” David joked. “I’d drive the car and take pictures when they came by. I wasn’t going to do 100 miles.”

Usually, while Arline was running or biking, David was fly fishing, or playing tennis, golf or racquet ball.

Capturing all of the Ford’s adventures would fill more than one book, but most of the highlights involved adventures in Europe, including 10 different extensive bike rides in eight or nine different countries.

“We love Europe and have been there more than 30 times,” David declared. “We biked along almost all the major rivers in Europe, and the important thing is that we biked downstream, so we didn’t have to ride uphill.”

On one memorable trip, they biked along the Danube River from the Black Forest to Vienna. “We especially enjoyed interacting with the locals in small towns and villages,” David added.

David and Arline also took two camping trips to Europe, using a Volkswagen camping van.

“We bought it in Baltimore and picked it up in Germany,” Arline explained. “When we were finished, they shipped it to the U.S. for free.”

The first time they only stayed a month, but seven years later, they decided to do it again for two months.

“We slept in a van all the way from Helsinki, Finland to Morocco,” David remembered. “Our camping trips were unbelievably good. We never saw the same thing twice. We kept moving almost every night. One of the highlights was when we were in Switzerland and slept at the north face of the Eiger.”

Upon returning to the U.S., they used the van to travel throughout the United States and Canada.

Although most of the Ford’s hiking took place in Colorado, David recalled that they did have several good hikes in Europe, including the Matterhorn.

“A lot of our hikes in Europe were from the top down,” he explained. “We would take the conveyances up and hike down.”

When it came to actual mountain hiking, that took place in the mountains of Colorado, which, according to David, are higher than the Alps.

“We did eight climbs of 14,000-foot mountains,” he revealed. “In Colorado, they’re called ‘14ers,’ and are considered a status symbol.”

David recalled one particularly memorable opportunity that involved a hike near Lake Louise in Canada where the path was quite narrow and steep. “I was embarrassed to find myself descending through sliding gravel…on my butt,” he laughed. “Meanwhile, Arline passed me like a mountain goat!”

In addition to the mountain climbing, biking, hiking and camping, the Fords also skied in Europe and in the U.S. Rocky Mountains, including in Colorado where they had a condo. In their spare time, they enjoy spending time with their blended family.

During their trips to Europe, the Fords often visited cemeteries where World War II servicemen were buried.

“I’ve been a World War II buff most of my life. I was 10 years old when the invasion of Normandy took place,” David explained. “So, I have embraced meeting the veterans of the second world war throughout my adulthood.”

Eventually, David started traveling to Europe without Arline and, instead, taking two, three or four veterans at a time and going from battle site to battle site. “I’ve been to eight American military cemeteries in Europe. There probably isn’t an area where a battle took place that I haven’t been. The most impactful one was Normandy. I’ve been there six times.”

David’s excursions with veterans have resulted in many memorable moments. “One time I took some veterans into the woods, and they found their foxhole,” he commented. “They were 17 or 18 at the time when they served, and, when they went back, they were in their 70s. That was a touching moment.”

Another time he found a German helmet and took it home. “I found it because I had information about a trail that the Americans had used to cut through the woods to avoid German fire,” he explained.

Arline recalled that he came home with a big cardboard box. “I thought he was bringing me something special this time,” she laughed. “I opened it up and thought ‘what is this rusty, old, ugly thing?’”

“These trips resulted in many friendships with Belgians, Germans, Luxembourgers and French World War II history enthusiasts,” David said.

The Fords’ most recent adventure was their move to Cypress Cove, which David describes as “the end of a three-month hurricane odyssey.”

The property they had owned on Sanibel for 13 years was seriously damaged by Hurricane Ian. Like so many others, they couldn’t find out the extent of the damage for several weeks. In the meantime, they stayed in five different lodgings over a period of three months.

“Arline finally took over,” David said. “She came over here to Cypress Cove, and three days later, we had a place to live, albeit with no furniture and just a few clothes.”

“I worked with Maureen, and she was fabulous!” Arline declared. “I told her that, at the end of December, we would have no place to live.”

Maureen showed her apartment 403, which was one of the only apartments available at the time. “A lady had made all the choices of everything, and at the last minute changed her mind, so it was ready-made,” Arline explained.

She and David liked everything about the apartment. “Maureen and Lauren helped make the move nearly seamless,” Arline added. “We were blessed. Someone was looking out for us.”

“I can’t get over, to this day, that no matter who you pass in the hall there’s a nice greeting, and usually a smile or a comment,” David said. “It’s amazed me the whole time. The attitude seems to be ‘we’re all here together so let’s make it nice.’ It’s a comforting feeling.”