Over the past few years I’ve really gotten used to using Google Maps on my phone to get around. Not quite the same as having a GPS, but still useful. Lately though, I’ve started paying more attention to the map part, and rather than running ruts in the same old highway routes that I’m used to being led down, I’ve started plotting my own course on some of the back roads and forgotten highways of CT.

The result?

Well so far I’ve noticed that even if the path I choose is more direct than the suggested highway route, it usually takes me about the same amount of time, or even a little longer. In one particular case, I found myself driving up and down massive hills for 10 miles or so, and realized that that’s probably why the highway goes around that area rather than through it.

However, the time spent on the road is more interesting; rather than cruising the same highway as every other day in a half-daze, I get to experience some new scenery and get little snippets of what life is like in some of the towns that I find myself passing through. There’s huge portions of the state that no one has any reason to ever see unless they happen to live there, and some of the businesses have rather clever names reflecting that fact. My personal favorite so far is the aptly named “Middle of Nowhere Diner” that falls at the crossing of two roads which probably used to be fairly busy in the days before 9 and 95 existed.

In the end, if you’re in a rush, it’s probably best to just sit back and listen to your GPS (and cross your fingers that the latest update’s been applied and is correct. Nothing like being led down an abandoned highway project or to a street that doesn’t exist anymore to make you want to throw your normally trusty device out the window into heavy traffic). After all, it’s built to get you where you’re going as efficiently as possible. If you have some time to spare, though, and you want to add a little variety to your travels, consider doing a little off-highway trailblazing.