College towns often have plenty of live music coming through with regularity, art, people with more open minds? (I don't mean to start a debate with the last point, just my preference perhaps.)

Lawrence works too because you're 30 or 45 minutes from a big city (Kansas City) so you can get your REI or IKEA on if you need to.

Lincoln, Nebraska is another near me (although I have not lived there) that is within 45 minutes of Omaha.

Had lunch in Iowa City and it looked comparable. An afternoon in Columbia, Missouri and it looked appealing as well.