Air road-trip to Santa Monica State Beach

It's a wonderful day in Richmond VA. I feel absolutely fabulous. The sun is shining. It's about 74 degrees. It's Sunday!! Everyone feels great and looks great. If you ever feel like visiting Richmond, now through the end of October is the time to be here. Best time of the year all Richmonders agree. Except maybe for those who like paddling in the James. They might prefer August.

Anyway! I feel I could drive forever. So why not take a little drive to Santa Monica State Beach? It's a lovely place and the weather is supposed to be sunny all week. Woo hoo! (SM is "B" in the map. You can zoom all the way in on satellite view. It's almost like being there!)

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Rand McNally tells me the fastest driving route takes 39 hours and 40 minutes. I would drive through Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Stop right there. I would be really close to Wichita where my son lives with his family so I would have to stop off for a couple of days. That's okay. I have all week. Before that I may need to take a couple of hours in Mt. Rogers State Park (in Virginia) because the view is fabulous.

Back in the car until I come to Albuquerque where I would stop for one day to try to locate (again) the scrap of land I own somewhere near Belin. I tried to actually see it once but couldn't find it because I forgot to bring the plat. Oh well. One scrap of desert is much like another.

Then on again through Arizona. Wonder if this takes me anywhere close to Sedona? Seems to be all the rage this year. After which there would be a straight shot to the beach (more or less). I would stay at the Sofitel in Hollywood because it has a weird name even though it's not really near Santa Monica.

In Santa Monica it would be nice to check out the beach amenities, stroll along the sidewalk to the various picnic areas (no barbecuing!) and perhaps play on the gym at Muscle Beach.

Back in reality, there is a beach less than two hours from here. I'm not going today. There's also some lovely mountains not far but I'm not going there either. I'm going to walk the dog to the dog park and do some more home improvement. That is, if I don't pull out a reclining lawn chair and sit out back in the sun and read a book.