Back in the day, when I was first watching the anime, I actually kind of hated their interactions with each other. The two reasons why were I had a love-hate relationship with the first season and I also used to find Misty extremely irritating. She always seemed to be on Ash's case about everything. I did notice moments like in "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak" and "The Tower of Terror", but I quickly dismissed them because it didn't make sense to me. Heck, I didn't comprehend why Misty was following him in the first place. Just to get her bike back? Needless to say, I had an incredibly poor perception of not only Misty, but love-hate relationships as well.
During the Orange Islands, the hints became more apparent and I started to like their interactions, even though I didn't like "Navel Maneuvers" at first, because it annoyed me how Misty ignored Ash throughout the episode. By the time I watched
Pokémon the Movie 2000, I started loving their interactions. Misty, on the other hand, I didn't really understand and loved he until the Mirage Kingdom episodes. After seeing those episodes, Ash and Misty became my favorite characters of the series. Too bad it happened seven seasons into the show, well after her leaving the main cast.
But now that I have a better understanding of Ash and Misty's relationship, I would probably really enjoy their interactions during the first season.