Originally the route from one farm or cabin to the next was literally a path, a footpath. In time, paths were expanded and extended and became trails and roads. Paths make possible not only movement from place to place but are the fundamental threads connecting the social fabric of the rural community. Paths are the worn ways that take people to the store, back past the church, and up the ridge to Uncle Dorsey's place. Paths are like the neural system of a rural community.
Nodes are the stopping points or the gathering points along the paths of the rural area.
Nodes occur when and where there is an occasion along a path to pause, slow down, or for travelers to repeatedly converge in the same place. A node is generated, for instance, at a stream crossing or ford during times of highwater when a farmer might wait a while for another farmer with wagon and team to arrive to assist in the crossing should some difficulty arise. Another kind of node is generated at the intersection of two trails where a campfire is built and a trapper or trader waits to meet someone. In time nodes are monumentalized or made permanent by the erection of a store or tavern or inn. Nodes are the primary anchor points, the major intersections, in the rural lifescape.