026: D33: May 11: New Paris OH to Muncie IND - 52 miles and 1030 miles in total (m95.7)

Today is an important day. I was my birthday and I am now 65 years old - officially Senior. 🥳🥳

Christine had several things planned for the day and I show some of the highlights below.

Early morning Mocha coffee and a cookie at the Cedar Coffee shop just outside the camp. A great way to start a cold morning.

Some additional exercise at a trailside gym,

A relaxing snack stop at the Newman Road Trailhead,

A lunchtime snack at the Route66 Cafe and Gas Station at Losantville, and

a delightful evening at the Olive Garden Restaurant in Muncie.

Man, I felt spoilt.

🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

Today we also passed a 1000 miles on the road. We both agreed that it was becoming easier and we still felt relatively good when we reached our hotel in Muncie after about 52 miles cycling.

😀😀😀😀😀🙂🙂🙂

We left Richmond OH and soon

reached the Ohio/Indiana Border. The border is actually the line where the asphalt changes color. 

This sign is about 200 feet from the actual border, but we still had to take the photo. 

We cycled past the Garfield arch at the Hayes Arboretum. It is all that remained after a fire destroyed the earlier Garfield School building. The good news is that the building was replaced.  

Richmond Indiana has some great murals and we enjoyed cycling past these. 

I also took note of the local police car and thought there must have been more hearing-impaired drivers in Richmond than elsewhere. 

We soon reached the Cardinal Greenways Trailhead in Richmond and spen the entire day on this Trail. This is an excellent trail with much to see along it and a pleasure to cycle on. The photos below try to do justice to the Trail.

Somebody hung up his cycle at the start of the Trail :):)

We cycled past though.

We passed this rail bridge and 

soon crossed two long rail trestles over the West and Middle Forks of the Whitewater River. The grid railing is protection where the tressle passed over a road.

Just beautiful.

We also identified a Honey Locust Tree for the first time. Nothing we had in Namibia compares to these thorns and I am surely glad that we do not see these thorns on the road. 

We passed under the Interstate 70 - just look at the never-ending stream of trucks in both directions. No wonder the roads are part of the reason for the demise of train traffic. We did not complain much at this point though - we had a lovely Trail - converted from an abandoned railway line - to cycle on.

The flowers were out in all their glory.

Sometimes we were paralel to the road and

most times in the woods or along farm land.

Stunning photo, Christine.

We came to Muncie too soon, but decided to call it a day to enjoy the Birthday. 

The White River through Muncie was also running strongly.

We stopped at the old Muncie Station Building, the offics of the Cardinal Greenways Organisation. Christine was looking for another book to read at the small library. 

We crossed the White River on this beautifully restored trestle with and older one next to us.

A lovely sunset ended a great day for the birthday man and his special special partner, wife, etc. Thanks, Christine for sharing this day with me as well.