"My life as a rural player and what changed."

#PokemonGO: I live in a small town in Tennessee, USA. The county I live in has a population of 12,900 residents, of that 1,640 people live in the 2.4 sq mi town. Needless to say we have a small Pokémon community. The town had 7 pokestops and 2 gyms at the beginning of this. To be frank, I love playing Pokémon Go. It's almost an obsession. I usually drive about an hour across a mountain to play in a bigger metro area. It's a haul just to be able to play but I didn't want to have to go across a mtn just to be able to play Pogo.I love my town but playing Pogo there was like being in jail. With only 7 stops and 2 gyms your playing ability was limited. So I set out to try to change my landscape.When I started this process my knowledge was limited on what it takes to get stops/gyms added in game. I knew it took a lol 10 Ingress agent to submit P.O.I(points of interest) and a lvl 12 agent to review submissions. So that was my first step, to find a Ingress agent who would help me. After a few tries and posts I finally got a response from someone. When we talked he explained that it was my responsibility to find the P.O.I., take the pics and the history of the P.O.I. He told me what made good P.O.I and what to stay away from. Ingress really has it documented what they look for in P.O.I. (I wish Niantic took the same approach to When it comes to Pogo). Back to the point. Then he took me through a crash course on S2 cells. He explained the relevance of lvl 14 & 17 cells, how it's determined when a P.O.I. becomes either a stop or gym. I found websites that could also help with that. So now with my new found knowledge it was time to hit the town. It was like I was rediscovering my town. I'm seeing things that I had never seen before. It was like a vail had been lifted from my eyes. I would find something take pics and finding the history of places I thought I knew but I was so wrong. I was P.O.I. drunk! Within 5 months from when I started I had submitted 38 P.O.I. Now it was the hardest part. Waiting for a response. The first response took 3 weeks from date of submission. IT WAS APPROVED! Now it's been a lil over 5 months from start and ALL of my submissions have been approved. It added 7 gyms and 32 stops to my little town. I can say it's a blast to play now here. I look forward staying here now. It's also rejunivated our Pogo community. We have enough people to do T5 raids almost all the time. If your a rural player, it can get better. Take it from me. All you have to do is do something about it. Get out and explore your town via /r/pokemongo https://ift.tt/2F9gsIO