From the Editor

On a recent walk to my local café fo breakfast, I decided to take a different route to the one I usually do. I turned off autopilot and maneuvered according to what looked interesting—smaller side streets, plant-lined alleyways, sunshine-drenched sidewalks—any way that I hadn’t walked before.

You can guess where I’m going with this, right? It was like a new neighborhood opened up. There was a window in a brick wall slinging coffee; two beautiful wolfhounds lounged in a lushly planted front yard; the houses ranged from 1970s brick to 2020s cement and glass.

I guess what I’m trying to say has been said plenty of times before, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Sometimes we need to remember to look at what’s right in front of us instead of staring wistfully off into the distance. Erin McGrady talks about this in this issue’s Side Roads column, singing the praises of short, local adventures. Joining Erin are Yulia Burova and Andrew Singer, who I interviewed about mental health on the road—how putting a lot of miles on the odometer won’t change much, unless you’re also prepared to take a little trip inward. Niel Stender finds that, even though he’s taken dozens of cross-country trips in his life, there’s still fresh delight to discover on every go-around; and Matt Ristine looks at the different types of mountain-biking terrains as platforms for self-discovery (and adrenaline rushes, of course).

As we ramble around the country, we hear about a beautiful and introspective babymoon in Colorado; acknowledge the quieter side of the Lone Star State in Texas’s Hill Country; tour a 10,000-year-old thoroughfare on Mississippi’s Natchez Trace Parkway; and find a lovely town in Vermont that industry left behind. All of these stories, in one way or another, remind us to look more closely: familiarity is only superficial; great things can be found by digging just a little deeper, whether in geography or spirit; and history can sometimes be just as exciting as novelty.

Here’s a ROVA challenge for you: find somewhere close to you that’s a surprise. If you’re on the road, it’s probably easy, but if you’re at home planning your next adventure, maybe try to find it a few streets away. Your new favorite place might be just around the corner. R

Gemma Peckham

Editor

ROVA