I have experienced that scary, rural road feeling, too. We used to do a ride named the "Chicken Ride," as it went by a chicken farm. The ride starts on the edge of western MA, about an hour and 10 minutes from here. It's a really, really hard ride, but near the end, you are a road that is pretty flat to rolling and it feels like you are in the Deep South or Appalachia. Surprisingly, once you get just a little bit west of where I live, Massachusetts is very rural, punctuated by some small, older, industrial cities, or larger small towns, often around colleges or vacation areas. We were riding with our friends, and of course DH and the male half of our friend couple were ahead. I could not see them. My friend was far behind me. This was way before GPS; I had a cue sheet, andI knew they would wait at turns, but I got really freaked out when 2 guys in a pick up (of course) bearing right wing stickers and a gun rack pulled out of a ramshackle house, scaring me. They slowed when they got beside me and yelled all kinds of stuff. All I remember is when they yelled, "Nice azz!" When I got to the turn where DH was waiting, I told him, and it turned out they had yelled the same thing to DH and our friend! This was in 2005, so they may not have ever seen lycra. We still joke about this today.
Jealous of all of your riding. It's going to be 87 here today, but I had my colonoscopy this morning, so no riding today, or yesterday. Just starting to feel human, and I may go for a walk, before dinner. I will be out doing an early AM ride, when it will be in the 60s at 5:30 AM!