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I can attest to that last point. Appalachia makes for some great drives due to that combo. Though on my routes there weren't a tonne of charming towns but interesting towns nonetheless. Old rust belt towns that might actually be more interesting in their hollowed out forms than their past, more vibrant forms. I found myself being more entertained in Appalachia than in the Rockies because I could just feel the history and Appalachian culture. New England has all those quaint villages, often by the sea. So a totally different vibe.

It was years after that I decided to explore within a two hour radius of me to see what Southern Ontario had to offer. Basically started in 2017, when I made the effort to take different routes to places or rent cars and go places I had never been.

And going back to the BC/ON thing, it's like I've been saying for years, even if the immediate area you're in is shit, in BC, you've at least got a nice backdrop to look at. And as for drives, when I go to the cottage I will take the highway one way and country roads the other way and make a couple of stops. If I drive across the GTA I will take QEW/Gardner/DVP/401 and then 404/401/403/QEW on the way back.

Even locally, I will take say Trafalgar to get on the QEW to go west and then on the way back I'll get off at Third Line or Dorval to switch things up. I do that for virtually anywhere I'm going that is a 10+ minute drive. If I'm taking the short country roads up to Milton, I will take Tremaine up and Bronte back down, etc.

I like variety and options so I appreciate all the small towns to see in Ontario and love that locally I can visit DT Oakville, Kerr Village or Bronte Village within 10-15 minutes.

And I also got that feeling of being overloaded with gorgeous scenery but still somewhat missing what home looks like. I got that in Florida and out west in CO, UT, AZ and NM. Mostly it comes down to what you grew up with.