[rockytriton]

Yea I work in DC myself, well, actually in Alexandria but sometimes I will get a contract inside of DC. Fortunately I live outside of the beltway (Stafford VA) where things tend to be a little safer.

[pgrmdave]

I grew up in New Jersey, in a very urban area, but I now reside in a more rural area (well, rural for northern NJ, at least).

[Biochemist]

Us US west-coasters probably have a different perspective on Urban/Rural. Buffy has been in relatively dense metropolitan areas for the west, but even there, you are not far from "real" space. I grew up in So California, and there are still huge large empty spaces (like the Mojave desert and most of the Sierra Nevada mountain range) in California. But I have been in Portland, Oregon for 25 years. Portland is a credibly-sized metropolis. The metro area is about 2 million inhabitants. But the Portland metro area comprises maybe 1-2% of the state area and has over half of the state population. The remainder of the state (the other 95,000 square miles) is EMPTY.

If you go an hour east, you are in wilderness. If you go 2 hours east, and a couple hours south, you are lost. If you go 2 hours west, you are in the Pacific Ocean.

I regard myself as a city guy. But any self respecting Oregonian has a lot of camping gear. I must be Rurban.

[cwes99_03]

Well, my view of rural isn't just visiting a place for a short time every once in a while. I mean I visited the city now and then, got to go to the museums every now and then. My grandparents lived in the rural town (pop. 600), which is totally nothing like growing up on a farm where you constantly have things to do and the weather is way more fierce.
I now live in a city of 115,000 in an old house that has been subdivided into apartments. I have to admit the life is totally different, but I'm still a country boy at heart. Put me two hours east and an hour south of portland and I could tell you exactly where I was and find my way back in the dark.
Growing up in a rural area also gave me all kinds of experience in technology, biology, physics, chemistry, math. I also had quite a library, as I loved to take my spare time (what little I had) reading all kinds of mystery, espionage, Tom Clancyish novels.