I’m surprised your main gripe with places like LA or NY are that they’re too big and sprawling and not that they’re dirty and full of unseemly things like homelessness and drug use

Oh it is as well but I was trying to be somewhat positive.

I think my real main gripe with LA is the immense social fracture between rich and poor. You can see an homeless man with his feet turned black for not having shoes and right next to him a fucker trying to impress girls with his Lamborghini.

Getting to the country side to see normal life and normal people was exactly my goal, just getting to a bar in a small town and making friends because of my obvious French accent. I was there for the social part and the nature sighting (and it was very nice!)