What is rural? I am learning.

I grew up in a city, Phoenix.
It was a bit rural when I was born
 now it is a major city.

My college years were in Flagstaff.
Again, rural when I lived there
becoming a city now.

Since then we have lived in some cities and some rural areas:
Wuerzburg, Alexandria, Indianapolis, Fort Riley,
Monterey, Honolulu, Pok Fu Lum- HongKong, Riyadh, Flagstaff,
Milford, and now our tiny town in Delaware.

Growing up in Phoenix, I had no idea how much of the country was "rural".

We live ten miles from the capital building
outside of the teaming metropolis of Dover Del(37,000 people)
in a tiny town (280 people and a volunteer fire department).

We often say that if there is a medical emergency in our neighborhood
throw the person into the track
and drive them to the hospital rather then die from the wait.

If you go about five miles from my house to the West
You can travel back to the 1800's to buy your eggs and veggies.
The horse and buggy communities of the Amish are everywhere.

We chuckle when "people" talk of getting rid of cars
and a plethora of public transportation.
Not here.

Tomorrow my car will turn North.
It will be parked in the train station garage
and rest while I board the train to New York.
There is a movie that I remember as a teen
about a young person going from an Amish community
to the big city.
Sometimes, staring out of the train window, I feel like that.

The travel takes about five hours.
One to get to Wilmington (71,000 pop),
two on the Northeast Regional through Philly (1.7 mil) and Newark (285,000),
one to transfer in Manhattan (1.6 mil- just Manhattan not the City) ,
 forty minutes to get to Garrison NY (26,000) on the Metro North
and then twenty minutes to get to West Point  (6,800 - 4,000 cadets).
Rural to rural with a whole lot of people in between.

The US is rural in so many ways.
It is where the food is grown and people are more relaxed.
The trains whistle through and sometimes stop.
The visit to "the city" is fascinating
I always go to a museum or a show when "n the city"
but in the end, rural is where my heart is.
Slow and easy retirement.