Originally Posted by BobbyG

On this beautiful, sunny, spring-morning's ride to work (in Colorado Springs) I took an alternate detour for variety.

It's a detour I have taken home from work many times over the last 20 years...but this was the first time I remember taking it in to work.

So while I was familiar with the neighborhood landmarks, I encountered them in reverse order and saw them framed against a different backdrop as I was facing the other direction. It brought a new perspective to everything...literally...

Of course biking through quiet residential streets allows one the time and low-stress environment to think and reminisce in a way that driving on fast busy rush-hour streets doesn't.

Temple Shalom and East United Methodist Church, the parks and sidewalks where my family played and walked...then, over the tops of some homes I saw the townhouse my wife and I lived in until we moved to our current home 20 years ago. Again, a view I don't see while facing the other way in the afternoon.

As I have mentioned in other previous posts, I occasionally take alternate streets while riding one of my four possible routes to and from work and it adds an element of adventure to my commute.

If you are fortunate enough to mix up your routes and sub-routes, I highly recommend it.

This morning it was just a one-mile detour, but it filled my head and heart with such joy.

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

I'm very motivated by novelty, and stymied by boredom on a bike, but I do have the motivation of commuting to work.

I have found that when I drive my frequent, decades-old routes I often notice things I had not seen before. I think it’s because I can look around at more than just the road surface when driving.

So when the commute [route] is getting too familiar, I just raise my head higher and look over a wider field of view….

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

A local BF subscriber @rholland1951 who contributes hundreds of photographs to the local Metro Boston thread from the same 11-mile long MUP he rides, once commented something like that "just the lighting / time of day / day of the year makes the ride “different.”

So too does the direction, one way, or the reverse.