I came from a big city, I lived in the DC area for 5+ years before here, and lived a majority of my life in Chicago before that.
I'm pretty content where I am. I have a mountain view more than halfway around my property, I have what we call the "SuperDeck", great beer drinking deck in the back where the view is, it connects to 3 different buildings, has levels and everything, including its own bathroom. Only views I had in Chicago, besides the skyline, which was cool for about a month, was hobos peeing on stuff.
The Appalachians are absolutely beautiful. The people in the area are pretty nice, especially considering I'm a city slicker, they're very welcoming. I'm where I'll retire, I'm gonna tear out the older buildings next year, and build a Super Cabin to go with my new SuperDeck.
I took this pic from the SuperDeck: