Many people have romantic notions about the country. Reality is there are “good” areas and bad. Lots of helplessness and poverty, shitty agricultural and industrial operators destroying the environment.

The beautiful areas are breathtaking if you can afford to live there.

I experienced both. I grew up in a beautiful pastoral landscape with prosperous dairy operations and a mix of tourism and small business. Small scale dairy farming is dead, and that death caused a chain reaction. My old home is a rural ghetto at this point. Distribution centers are the big thing that was supposed to save the day, but they have high turnover and generate truck traffic and other issues.