I dream about all sorts of fantastic bike trips but in reality I don't get very far from my front door!
But Jim...your "everyday setting" is someone else's Dream Destination! Just imagine...New England in the Fall with all the beautiful turning of the leaves! Wow. We have pretty Falls here in Oregon, but photos like yours still make my heart skip a beat and cause me to think, "Hmm...'wonder what the airfares would be this time of year?"
I'm reminded of the (para)phrase, "A prophet is without honor in his own land". Well, our own home settings are a bit like that. Being commonplace to
us, they don't seem so exotic anymore 'cos we're used to them. Everyone's fantasy destination is someone else's humdrum-daily. I imagine there's folks on the French Riviera who think, "Oh, just another day. Now, if I could only visit beautiful green Ireland or see Oregon's forests, or Scotland's rugged coastline!" One of my favorite places in the whole world is San Diego County in Southern California. I was amazed to find everyone depressed during what they call "May Grey" and "June Gloom" a roughly two month period when there is persistent high-cloudiness (
http://meteora.ucsd.edu/cap/gloom.html ...and...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Gloom ). What about the amazing beaches? The beautiful desert? The wilderness of the Cleveland National Forest? The rainless, 73°F/23°C days? Nah. It's cloudy; "I'm soooo down thanks to the weather". Bah. I'd move there in a heartbeat if I could afford the housing, May Grey/June Gloom or not.
Nice to see you adding to the "Catskills Nomad" gallery, Jim; a very nice job as always.
All the best,
Dan.