Reply to @alive:
At one time, I thought that Portland was a pretty place, but it has become ugly, as far as I'm concerned: too many people (many of them homeless), too much traffic, too much hustle and bustle. Here, we live on "coast time," where there's always time to say "hi" or to wave, even to total strangers. When we're out walking, we not only make eye contact, but often stop and chat. In this little town, we're a community rather than a bunch of people jammed into too little space. When I drive to the Portland area every two weeks to load bread donated by Dave's to our Backpacks for Kids program, I usually have a long list of things I need to do...but, I often just ignore the list and head toward home.

Of course, since Lincoln City (what a stupid name for a tiny town that Lincoln was never within thousands of miles of), being a tourist town, expands by 50,000 people on a nice weekend. Then, it's best to stay off the highway and out of the stores 'cause the thing about just too many people is in your face. Still, there are moments you wouldn't be likely to experience in the big city. One Saturday, I hadn't bought enough milk for the weekend, so found myself in Safeway, in a line that took at least a half hour. During the wait, the people behind me struck up a conversation, and she was from SE Alaska, a halibut and salmon fishing guide, so we had lots in common since I've been in the sport fishing business most of my life. Believe it or not, when we went to what is the best restaurant within 25 or 30 miles Monday night, they were sitting at a table near us! Yesterday, the town's tourism director did a program for our lecture series for older folks...he's also the secretary of Backpacks. I know dozens of people who simply walk the one-lane gravel road in front of our property, although, when I lived in Portland, I barely knew my next door neighbors.
I really, really believe that what's wrong with this country is that far too many people have little or no connection with the Earth.