Where in the heart of dixie are you ataraxium? I lived around Auburn for a few years, and used to ride backroads all over east central AL. Many were unpaved roads, and traffic was pretty light. If you look at a map of AL and take the area north and east of Auburn, there are almost endless backroads through the rolling hills north of I-85, south of I-20 between GA border and US 431 north. Not many towns around there either, which meant few cars or people to contend with. Never had any big hassles, nothing close to what you described. Maybe cause I usually wore a sort of orange / brown camo shirt while bike riding and they thought I was a local hunter. I did learn to avoid roads near national forest or WMA areas during deer season!