Ever wonder why most of the small rural towns are all about 6-7 miles away from each other?

[LWolf]

7. I am 7 miles from town.

My "town" has grown into a small city; the population sign entering town says 25,000. I think that's from the big real estate bubble; based on enrollment numbers in the local school district we've lost a lot of people.

The next "town" to the north, just a small wide spot on the highway, is about 6 miles. The next town to the south...about 7 miles, and another, our largest city, another 7 miles south of that.

I'd never thought about it before, but that makes sense.

I don't really know how long it takes to travel by buggy. I know I can ride my horse 7 miles in about 90 minutes or so without any strain; walk the first and last mile, trot out the five miles between....

I can ride my horse from my house to the town to the south, about 9 miles direct, almost entirely on public land, with the last few miles on a rural highway. I don't like to ride on the side of a rural highway, so I rarely do; since I'm not trotting most of the way, that ride takes me about 2.5 hours one way.