I live in Marion, about an hour north of Wichita. It's kind of in the middle of a lot of bigger towns. Marion's population is about 2000.
We have McPherson 37 miles away, Newton 32 miles, Wichita 60 miles, El Dorado 45 miles, Emporia 50 miles, Junction City and Manhattan 45 and 60 miles, Abilene 45 miles, Salina 70 miles.
Small town living but within an hour of any large city. AND we have 2 nice lakes within 5 miles (when they don't have that pesky algae problem!)
Most of Kansas is like that though, big-ish city with a lot of small towns around it.