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Old 05-06-2011, 11:35 PM
 
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,606 posts, read 55,773,299 times
Reputation: 11862

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I lived in a town of 2000 for a year, and the nearest city of any size was 94km away, the nearest major city 270km away. For me this was a little too far. Trips to anywhere resembling a true urban environment were 3 hours away, which although isn't that much, gets tiring after awhile. I tended to visit the big city only once a month or so to catch up with friends and family and get my dose of 'urbanity.' The funny thing is this town is in the most developed rural part of our great state. Up north towns are often 500km (about 320 miles) from each other. I'm talking anywhere with a post office and a hotel, basically.

How far from a major city is too far for you? Even those who escape to get away from it all occasionally need to go to the city for some reason.
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Old 05-07-2011, 06:36 AM
 
Location: Bradenton, Florida
27,232 posts, read 46,506,167 times
Reputation: 11081
If I can find the amenities I need locally, then I don't need a "major city". As long as I can get groceries there, I don't need much of anything else. I have to be within 3 hours walk of my job though.
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Old 05-07-2011, 06:51 AM
 
Location: West Michigan
12,082 posts, read 38,707,199 times
Reputation: 17006
The further the better for me. Right now my house is an hour from any city that is over 10,000 and I might go down there twice a year if I have to. I can get everything I need locally, and everything I may want is a simple mouse click away.
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Old 05-07-2011, 07:19 AM
 
Location: Nebraska
4,176 posts, read 10,650,672 times
Reputation: 9644
I live in a town with a population of 149. We drive 3 hours, twice a year, to go shopping for staples in 'the big city' - pop 47,000. Most of what we get we trade for or buy locally; our needs are small and there is too much to do on the farm to leave for very long, even though we have traded time/work/eggs for feed-up animal care with locals if we have to be gone more than a day.
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Old 05-11-2011, 01:03 PM
 
Location: At the end of the road, where the trail begins.
760 posts, read 2,431,671 times
Reputation: 353
The nearest larger city is over 5hrs drive from me and that's much to close.
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Old 05-11-2011, 05:51 PM
 
Location: Texas
181 posts, read 304,308 times
Reputation: 110
Quote:
Originally Posted by SCGranny View Post
I live in a town with a population of 149. We drive 3 hours, twice a year, to go shopping for staples in 'the big city' - pop 47,000. Most of what we get we trade for or buy locally; our needs are small and there is too much to do on the farm to leave for very long, even though we have traded time/work/eggs for feed-up animal care with locals if we have to be gone more than a day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeeg
The nearest larger city is over 5hrs drive from me and that's much to close.
Wow..where the hell are y'all?....lol
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Old 05-11-2011, 07:45 PM
 
Location: West Michigan
12,082 posts, read 38,707,199 times
Reputation: 17006
Quote:
Originally Posted by kallenfranchise View Post
Wow..where the hell are y'all?....lol
Don't know where SCGranny is; but Jeeg is up in God's Country... the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
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Old 05-11-2011, 08:09 PM
 
Location: Middle America
37,409 posts, read 53,263,329 times
Reputation: 53065
I grew up 100 miles from Chicago. That worked out well, for me. The nearest town to my parents farm is a village of 300 people.

We went into Chicago fairly regularly, but for social/leisure purposes, not for utilitarian purposes. For major shopping, etc., we went to Rockford, which is about 150,000 people, and about twice as close as Chicago.
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Old 05-11-2011, 09:53 PM
 
Location: Nebraska
4,176 posts, read 10,650,672 times
Reputation: 9644
Quote:
Originally Posted by kallenfranchise View Post
Wow..where the hell are y'all?....lol
Well, there is a sign 80 miles due East of me on the 2-lane highway that says, "Welcome to the Middle of Nowhere!" - so I guess we live on the western edge of Nowhere!

Seriously, North-Central Nebraska, in a 100-year-old 3000 sq ft farmhouse, on 60 acres of rolling hills with sweet tumbling water, surrounded by Angus cattle ranches worked by real cowboys and cowgirls on horseback, where the only sounds at night are the wind, the hoots of the owls and the baying of the coyotes.... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....
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Old 05-12-2011, 09:58 AM
 
Location: North Western NJ
6,591 posts, read 24,774,020 times
Reputation: 9680
sounds amzing scgranny

for me personally, i need to be within 30 mins of basic ameneties (ie feed store and basic grocery) preferably an hour from bigger amenities (larger grocery, goodwill/thrift stores, a movie theater, resturaunts) and no more than 3 hours to an airport and larger city...

if i get the house im hoping to buy ill be 30 mins from savanah tn, about an hour from florence al, a little under 2 1/2 hours from nashville, 3 hours to memphis and about 4 hours to chattanooga...
theres only 3 neighbors on the street unless you count the feild full of cows, and all you could hear standing on the 2 1/2 acre property was the sound of birds, and the occasional crow of a distant rooster....Heaven!
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