I gotta ask....WHERE "in the country" did you live?? I grew up in "deep country" in Louisiana, and there was never a lack of things to do or a shortage of good restaurants within reasonable driving distance. With today's electronic access to virtually everything, the situation is even better.
And yes, I spent many years in a city of >100K population (Baton Rouge), and a couple of years in Houston.
I hope never to live in a city again.
Same here. The first and last time I visited Dallas I decided to walk from the hotel to downtown and back. On the way back I walked from garages costing $20 / day (and this was many years ago), to lots charging $10, to $3 lots to $1 lots to some open lots that were apparently free. Then came a completely decrepit neighborhood, then commercial areas and difficult to cross highways and finally my hotel.
The cities might not be too bad in some spots and some respects, but they attract and are surrounded by filth, isolated by traffic-clogged roads and utterly dependent on cars (e.g. my hotel and many other venues). Melas complains that everything is a long drive in the country but neglects to mention that there are no traffic lights and natural beauty the whole way.
Initially a little place called Pineland, TX (which the natives pronounce (pine-LAND). The population was under a thousand in 1994 when I moved there, and is under a thousand still. The nearest “city” is Jasper, pop 8,000 or so, and 25 miles away.