All summer my wife and I would do the same thing every weekend.
We would find a town within 45 mins, any direction, that we haven't been to. We'd find a really nice park there and take our toddler and have a picnic. After that was unplanned. Sometimes we'd go home and take it easy. Sometimes we'd wander.
45 mn is a rather small radius. Didn't you run out of unknown towns after some time? I'm pretty sure I've visited all cities in my neighborhood, at least those that are worth it.
Depends where you live, though often small towns are more similar than different to the visitor. Still the surrounding, some little shops etc can be quite different.
And 45 minutes is a pretty good limit when you have a small child.
I suppose it depends where you leave. 45min around my hometown would include something like ~100 towns. Many of them are blending into each other, but you still have quite a lot of variety and stuff to see
We would find a town within 45 mins, any direction, that we haven't been to. We'd find a really nice park there and take our toddler and have a picnic. After that was unplanned. Sometimes we'd go home and take it easy. Sometimes we'd wander.