I grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati and in my youth would often go wandering in southeastern Kentucky, in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. The farther you are into this area, the farther east of I-75 you go, the farther you get into one of the really undeveloped areas of the United States. Some people here don't "shop" for anything very often, other than the tools needed to support a subsistence lifestyle of hunting, fishing, and gathering. It's a different world, completely unconnected to the one where most of the TR folks live (tech jobs, tech hobbies, etc).
The bayous of Louisiana are similar. I worked on a boat on the Mississippi in the mid-70's and saw parts of the country where (among other things) there were no radio or television signals whatsoever. We needed a cook at one point and our chief had made a connection with a chef in New Orleans to pick up her daughter on a sandbar not far from Baton Rouge. She got on the boat and was as wide-eyed as anyone I'd ever seen. About 17 years old, she was wearing the only piece of clothing she owned. She had long dark hair on her unshaven legs and armpits, was barefoot, and according to her, had never worn shoes in her life. I saw a lot of strange things in my time on the boat, but this is one I've never forgotten.
What about you? Where have you been in this "developed" continent where you saw something that really opened your eyes to the difference between modern life and everything else?