Honestly, I forget what level you need. You can now take the cab to all sorts of out-of-the-way locations, especially Forochel, Angmar, and Annuminas.
My wife and I have been playing a pair of Minstrels on Landroval (or, as we call it, Landrover). Presevli and Lynuilas are their names, and I think they’re 27 or so now.
Heh, Mud People MMOs. I’ll pit my Cruiser against your mage any day of the week. ;p
It’s interesting to see the demographics that play different games. It seems like Eve and LOTRO have a higher age bracket.
I get paid to do financial and technological optimization, so I can’t really imagine wanting to do it in a game.
If I’m going to pay to play an MMO, I want it to have magic and swords, dammit!
In a sense, it helps with some of the ‘riddles’.
But, have deep knowledge of Middle-Earth will let you enjoy the game really, really more. Here was an entire thread, about 60 pages, on what are the details (such as the statue of Bullroarer knocking off a goblin’s head in the Shire, a quest involving a walking tree in Needlehole…)
Here’s the forum thread on all the bits in the Hobbit and LOTR which made into the game.
My favourite being; the star constellations at night are precisely as Tolkien described them.
How’s that for putting detail where nobody looks? 
(More favourites are the bird nests on the shoulder of one of Bilbo’s trolls, the fact that you make Hope stones of beryl and on Weathertop, if you look closely, there is a stone underfoot with the enscription “G3.”
I have kind of the opposite problem. As a fighter-mage in real life, I want spaceships. 
My wife and I play. Look for us on Silverlode on weekends and rarely on weeknights (for me, at least). Too many characters to list here, only one above 40…and just barely.