Do people have reading comprehension problems? She move BACK HOME after living in cities and is rediscovering things like you mention all over again.
I only read the excerpt—I will not give NYT the page views—which referenced her friends back in Portland. Therefore, from the information contained within the excerpt, I conclude that she is from Portland. And her tone shows contempt for rural America in that piece. Even her attempt to show that rural America is as enlightened as the cities reeks of contempt. She comes across as an observer who describes without ever understanding what she sees.