City Folks

My insurance has a case worker following up on my recovery from my hernia surgery. When she asked about my doctor and the endocrinologist to which my doctor has referred me, I mentioned in passing that it is 40 miles one way to the medical center, and the case worker said, "That's awfully far away! Can't we find you someone closer?" I laughed and said, "I live around 30 miles from the center of Reno, Nevada. I don't live in San Francisco or San Jose or Atlanta or Chicago. 40 miles isn't far at all. There's a place in Nevada called Tonopah that is more than 200 miles from the nearest hospital and has billboards advertising emergency medical air ambulance transport to Las Vegas."

She seemed a bit stunned by the idea that anyone lived that far away from a hospital. "Oh, you sweet summer child," I thought, but did not say. "You don't know anything about how rural much of the West is."