I was travelling through PA once as well and was at a local dive bar chatting up some folks - and they'd never even left their county either - not even for casual travel.
My moms side (7 kids, German Methodist) is scattered about, CA,OH,NC,NY,CO,GA and one uncle that stayed near my grandma in PA.
Hands down, far and away I’d take the first situation over the second. The family bonds and stories are incredible. They get together all the time, work together, some go to church together. It’s an incredibly tight knit family and at last look three of the women that divorced out of the family still come to gatherings and still carry that family name for decades.
You let it be known you need some help with X and suddenly a cousin appears who specializes in X.
1. Cities are awful dangerous places with no value 2. Strip malls and chain restaurants are the pinnacle of civilization
When I moved from Bucks County to Chester County I was "moving away" and many people just wrote me off. Despite being an hour or two drive away.
This is the reason people are willing to commute so damn far; you're forced to commute but if you're not near your friends, you'll never see them again.
You can't hardly move at all in Texas without ending up in another county, but you can go 1000+ miles and still be in the same state.
Whereas there are counties in California that are larger than the nine smallest states.
There are many Californians that have been to another country (Mexico) but have never been to another state; they're far away.