The secret things matter

Today was special day fated to give me a moment of pure beauty.  After stopping at the LBS to check the price of some new brakes for my roadie, I took off down the busiest street in the county.  You've all seen this street, it's in every city, it goes from the center of town, carries all the damn traffic in town out past every big box retailer and leads to the mall.  Ending near the largest residential area, this street has 5 lanes (1 suicide), no parking and a 35 mph speed limit which is never enforced.  In short it's that street you just don't ride on.

I couldn't resist today, the right hand lane I needed was blocked off with orange barrels for impending construction and I had the entire lane to myself.  I loved the whole smugness of the situation, riding down the middle of the lane, waving as I passed lines of backed up traffic.  With all the business curbcuts, intersections and driveways, it was probably more dangerous than the sidewalk, but I just couldn't ignore the opportunity to take over an entire lane in the face of all that traffic.
Better yet, it ended at a street in one of the older residential areas of the city.  The cars were taking over the lane and I was forced to make a turn and go down a side street I'd never used.  It led to a brick lane I'd never seen which was posted "No Outlet."  Since it was a beautiful day, I'm crazy and didn't mind getting lost, I followed the brick road and found this lovely isolated park

which can only be reached by foot or by bike.  A perfectly manicured public garden and walkway, hidden in the middle of the city.

not even half a block from the busiest street in town.  I've lived in or near the town for over 18 years, have driven past this thousands of times and would never have known about it had I not been riding my bike this particular day.