Traveling to Rural Areas: 8 Tips |

Ryan Biddulph September 12, 2024 travel posts 🕑 6 minutes read

Fairview, North Carolina

I will likely settle in to a rural area when-if I decide to cease traveling.

Peace.

Quiet.

Serenity.

Nature.

Wildlife.

Marks checked.

Yes; I may post a “private property” sign (see tip #2 below). I do not intend to be tough on rural property owners but transparent with the various fears out in ‘dem woods.

Collectively speaking, I have at least a few years of experience living in rural areas of:

Fiji
New Zealand
Bali
Thailand
India
Turkey
Oman
Greece
Costa Rica
Panama
10 U.S. states

We’ve done everything from spending time in mildly rural haunts to flat out remote locations requiring 3 hours of hiking away from the nearest human.

Keep these ideas in mind before traveling to rural areas.

1: Drive Slowly

People who live in rural areas spend vast amounts of time driving to and from town by default.

Stores require 20 or 30 or 60 minutes of drive time; or more.

Some drivers speed even on perilous roads.

Dude today hugged my bumper around hairpin curves and steep grades. I calmly pulled over at the first straightaway with hazards on. He swiftly passed me.

Drivers sometimes drift into your lane on hairpin curves. Rural folks follow this habit with alarming regularity in places like Panama.

Prepare yourself. Relax your mind. Drive slowly. Drive confidently.

Allow their Mario Andretti skills or severe impatience to be. Focus on your car…..and the rural road ahead.

2: Respect Private Property

I wrote this post after observing a clearly marked property adorned with so many private property signs that I thought it was a nuclear facility. Note; the front yard was 1/8th of an acre. I am not kidding.

Moving way out into the sticks removes most people from your life but not the fear of people invading your private space; hence the litany of signs.

For full transparency, some whack-a-doodles live out in the woods too, as transients. If one or more acts bizarre on or around your property I do understand why a homeowner would use threats and force.

Public roads turn private in a split second. Be ready for that one.

People do this to keep out hunters or poachers, hikers, cyclists and ax murderers. I get it.

Respect all private property signs for a seamless hiking or driving experience.

Explore the vast public lands available in most rural areas.

3: Take Advantage of Quiet Surroundings

Eventually, you will begin to understand how all problems in life are your fears projected onto people, places and circumstances.

Being in serene rural areas allows this truth to surface.

Seize this reality. Hike. Commune with nature. Meditate. Pray.

Capitalize on quiet to work through your head stuff.

4: Live in Harmony with Wildlife

I saw 11 bears during one month in Asheville.

Rather than freak out in panic I felt twinges of fear during encounters but calmly raised my voice to notify ’em of my presence. Each ambled off.

Never bother with traveling to rural areas if wildlife scares you because wildlife lives in rural areas. If a person terrified you would you spend a month in their house or avoid it at all costs?

5: Read the Room

Rural living can symbolically foster a mindset shift.

Being away from people makes one:

deeply appreciate human contact when one goes into town
viscerally dislike human contact when one goes into town

Rural folks exude a laid back vibe mainly. I read the room to mirror their energy back to them through my chill vibe.

However, some rural individuals want nothing to do with personal interactions. Respect their request. Take nothing personally. If someone seems highly rude at the store, or at the gas station, or avoids making eye contact or exchanging even the mildest pleasantries, the person fears people. Gently look past them towards the kindly majority.

The remote curmudgeon scenario:

is rare in rural areas
can happen anywhere

but living in rural areas and speaking to many folks who live in these outposts, we’ve all experienced folks who seem to lose their taste for human interactions and tactful touch in dealing with people.

It does happen.

6: Either Set Pet Boundaries or Accept their Place in the Food Chain

Some homeowners allow dogs and cats to roam free range. Fear of loss may scare the owners but indoor pet misery supersedes their egoic fears.

Other homeowners impose strict rules to prevent pet predation.

We have cared for outdoor dogs and cats in places with jaguars, bears, coyotes, pythons, cobras and boa constrictors on the property. I know; I saw or neighbors saw each creature on the property.

During a house sit in remote Colorado, the homeowner allowed only day walks for her 3 stout, muscular boxers because mountain lions made kills on her property. Her perimeter fence reached 12 feet high. At night, the dogs did their business in a pen with 15 foot fences to prevent a mountain lion intrusion.

Find the mid-way point between your desires and your pet’s desires.

7: Arrive During Daylight Hours

The homeowner here in the Blue Ridge Mountains advised us to arrive before dark.

No street lights, winding roads, steep mountains and heavy canopies make for stout obstacles when trying to locate a rural address. Your phone GPS may work but your mapping will drop out more often than not.

I recall visiting a highly rural AirBnb in Virginia at 2 AM. Nothing like winding around pitch black mountain roads with deer, bear and other wildlife around trying to find a house address with a seeming magnifying glass.

If you can swing it, arrive during day time hours. See clearly. Find your lodging. Take advantage of daylight.

Seize the day. Literally.

8: Understand What DOES NOT Exist in the Minds of City Folk and Suburban Dwellers DOES EXIST in the Forest Out Here

You likely know by now that Kelli and I had a vivid encounter with a large, highly intelligent, bipedal being in a *remote* section of the Adirondacks years ago.

Specific words regarding these beings have been weaponized by the government through its national parks and law enforcement, logging industry, real estate industry and other special interests.

In the cities and suburbs, most fall hook, line and sinker for the idea that these beings do not exist. But if you decide to travel to remote areas where locals see ’em frequently, they will eventually encounter you, on their terms. Done deal.

Rural to remote areas prove that quite a few species DO exist miles, dozens of miles or hundreds of miles away from human civilization. Some locals never have experiences. Many do but feel terrified to share for being mocked, laughed at and rejected. Tens of thousands do share their honest encounters online.

If I am being fully transparent, most humans are so filled with fear and closed-minded that they behave like a piece of doodoo to honest, genuine humans who share authentic experiences with animals and types of people not officially recognized by science.

I am almost completely certain that I had another experience with these people recently in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Some conspiracies become true out in the boonies.

Jokes become real, sometimes.

People you mocked force you to eat crow.

When you get really far away from most people…..you see and experience what most people will never see and experience.