A year ago, my wife and I moved from the Bay Area to rural Nevada. Within a week I found myself in some King of the Hill-esque group and now I stand around with

A year ago, my wife and I moved from the Bay Area to rural Nevada. Within a week I found myself in some King of the Hill-esque group and now I stand around with neighbors drinking beers. I know basically everyone within 3 miles; back in the Bay I had that same apartment experience you had as did I when I was in the suburbs. It’s led me to a theory that density limits interactions by excessive choice. We drive everywhere here (the OP original claim that was the alienator), but the entire county, 18,000 square miles, has 44,000 people in it and I see the same people at the gas station, the grocery store, the coffee shop, every time I go. So I still end up meeting people eventually just by routine. It’s also weird how you can start to spot outsiders - the gas station I use has developed some weird social pattern that you always enter from the south and thus the cars always face the same way, so visitors don’t know that and you spot them.