I actually love the country and used to live in this small town near the river in WV, and used to ride my bike around the streets safely and could go up in the mountains with my sisters in the summer, and have snow in the winter...and it tends to be what I fantasize about when I'm out West for any extended period of time, I start thinking of villages in northern or central Europe a la Heidi or something...but in truth the place I'm from is kind of similar in terms of being green, forested, snowy, just lacks the European culture.
Which brings me to why I even like living on the West coast. I like nature too much to live in a big city like NY or Chicago, but L.A. has suburbs and beaches, sunshine and palm trees, so I like it too...and the benefit here is that there is access to more people and a variety of cultural aspects missing in a little town...but I also can get sick of how much concrete there is here in comparison, and it is more expensive to live.
I think if I was even upper middle class, I'd have two locations to stay, like a home with a yard in WV, and then a time-share in Santa Monica or something, and I'd be good to go, lol.