We lived ~half a mile off the farthest out road intersection my school bus driver was willing to come to. We had one neighbor family halfway between us and the end of the road. All around the hill we lived on was cow pastures and woods - which sometimes got clear cut, turning our road into a logging road. When we needed more help than the one neighbor, we walked over the pastures and through the woods to get to other houses when we could all them to lend a hand or let us use the phone to call relatives that lived in town. I think you and I mean the same thing by rural, we just have very different experiences of people knowing how to act.