I kind of work in two towns at the moment. Both are rural and both do not have a single traffic light. For some reason where I spend most of my time there are three Chinese restaurants. There are two liquor stores, one with a surprising good selection. The one grocery store here also rents U-Hauls. If you need anything like furniture you need to go to the city. The closest big city is Edmonton. The city is never referred to by name, it is always called the city, as in "I'm heading into the city". If you live on a farm and you need something from the nearest town you are always heading into town, which would be the nearest town.
When I was a kid and visited my relatives on the farm near Drayton Valley, Alberta if you needed something from the city it took over two hours to get there so it was an all day affair. It took so long because the roads were lousy. On one of those visits when I was a kid the deep freeze cratered on my aunt and uncle's farm. The day was a write off as it would take all day to get a new freezer and it is one of those necessary things. Everyone got loaded into the truck and once there some were dropped off to go shopping and my uncle Ben and I went to buy a freezer. We found one but could not buy it at the store because you had to get it at the warehouse. After that you gathered everyone up and headed home. Now a good chunk of the highway is two lanes in each direction depending on the route you take and it almost takes half the time. Getting stuff is a bit more convenient these days as well.
Anyway this post is not really going anywhere but is trying to say small town life can be a little different. Sometimes heading into work you run into some weird traffic issues that you do not encounter in the city.
