Hayride in Exurbia

Actually, I'm not sure the place qualifies as exurban: it's pretty much rural.

I've known a lot of people with the same dream, live 'in the country.' They may have a job on College Boulevard or even downtown, but they'll have mailing addresses in Paola, Kansas and Adrian, Missouri. Which isn't to say they actually live in those towns, they live on hobby farms or in a split-level plunked in the middle of a twenty acre lawn.

Then they commute. It was a revelation to Corinna the first morning she rode in a car with me on my morning commute. Here I was, getting on the interstate from the furthest southwest corner of Johnson County to head into the city for work, and there was all this traffic coming in from further south.

"Where do they come from?" she asked, half-astonished. I say half, because she knew the answer to that. Even lived that life briefly a few years ago.

The answer is they come from places like the one we went to the third annual hayride hosted by the woman who really got the special needs ministry at Heartland going.

I can see the appeal of living in such a place. It's beautiful. If I worked from home and didn't need to access the city apart from the occasional grocery run, I...could no way ever live out here.

Letting alone the fact that I hate riding on gravel roads, and living in the country would definitely lock me into that, I've felt far too isolated from cultural institutions, night life and entertainment living in Gardner, let alone way out in Miami County.

The only reason I moved to Gardner in the first place was I had a job there, and the job looked like a keeper. It was a great job for ten years, and nine of those years I enjoyed a commute so short I feel silly in hindsight for not cycling it more than a half dozen times. 2.4 miles, you can't even get sweaty on a hot day in that kind of distance. I could drive a jalopy and not care if the air conditioner or heater worked.

Or I could have gone it one better and gone car free.

Nothing against Gardner, it's a great place to raise kids. Phenomenal school district, low crime (when my friend in Chicago had her bike stolen from a fifth story stairwell I joked to her that I probably couldn't get my bike stolen from my driveway), and maybe the highest greasy spoon per capita count in 500 miles. As my friend (and mayor) puts it, 'a great place to live but I wouldn't want to visit there.'

I guess I'm kind of looking at the coin from the other side. While I enjoy visiting exurbia, and totally see why the people who sign up to drive 100 miles per day enlist in the gridlock marines, I wouldn't want to live that way. Too much time in the car, too much fretting over gas prices, and far too much wearing cars out.