Or … how to mess up a perfectly good vacation.

Our goal was to drive north, over two bridges, to the next barrier island and then do a 30-mile round-trip ride to McKee Botanical Garden to see Nature Connects: Art with Lego Bricks. We parked at a boat launch. The National Navy SEAL Museum:A rest stop at Avalon Beach:Back on the road, I turned to read a sign, got too close to the right edge of the roadway, slipped over the edge, and went down. Hard. Really hard. A construction worker, Justin, rushed over. He lifted the bike off me, got my phone, and called Billie who was ahead of me. A pickup truck stopped to see if I needed help. No, I didn’t want an ambulance. But I also couldn’t put any weight on my left leg and couldn’t move my left arm. Mike and Susan in the pickup loaded my bike in the back, Justin helped me walk to the truck and into the cab, and we drove back to where Billie’s vehicle was parked. Billie rode back on her bike. With help, I made it to bed where Nurse Billie brought me ice packs, ibuprofen, and went out to get a heating pad. We made a deal that if I wasn’t feeling better by Monday, I would go to a local doctor. Crap!

This was my best opportunity to check in with Weight Watchers this month – still below my goal weight!We stopped at Nelson Family Farms on the way back. Billie bought some fresh fava beans – never had those before.The longest stretch of road was on Indian River Drive. No shoulders but also not much traffic.Beautiful homes to the left, their docks on the Indian River to the right.Miles = 30.

After Al’s Family Farm, we rode back into Ft Pierce and followed a self-guided trail to learn about the Florida Highwaymen, a group of 26 African American landscape artists in Florida. They were self-taught and created over 200,000 paintings. Mostly from the Fort Pierce area, they painted landscapes and made a living selling them door-to-door to businesses and individuals throughout Florida from the mid-1950s through the 1980s. They got their Highwaymen name because they also peddled their work from the trunks of their cars along the eastern coastal roads.

Pine Grove Cemetery where three of the artists are buried. When Pine Grove Cemetery was started, blacks and whites were still segregated, even at death.Many of the Highwaymen attended high school at Lincoln Park Academy where they received art lessons from Zanobia Jefferson. When Lincoln Park Academy was accredited in 1928, it was one of only four accredited black high schools in Florida.The Dunbar House was the home of Doretha and Alfred Hair and the main gathering place for some of the Highwaymen.A car pulled into the driveway to see if Doretha was home (she wasn’t). We noticed the sign on the door.We felt so lucky to be able to meet and talk to one of the Highwaymen, Willie C Reagan.Eddie’s Place was located here, a juke joint where several of the Highwaymen congregated and where Alfred Hair was killed in 1970 at the age of 29. As we were reading the sign, a man across the street was yelling, apparently at us. He came across the street to tell us Alfred’s brother was “just over there” in the parking lot and then pointed to spot where Alfred was shot – near the palm tree which he planted to honor Alfred. The Highwaymen Obelisk is 20-feet tall and features mosaic duplicates of Highwaymen paintings.Every stop along the trail had an information-packed sign. This one for the only woman in the group, Mary Ann Carroll.The west wall of the Intermodal Transit Station features 26 engraved plaques that list the names of each artist mounted on a huge mosaic of a colorful Royal Poinciana tree, which was painted by many of the Highwaymen artists in their landscape scenes.The home and art studio of A E “Bean” Backus, a well-known (white) Florida landscape artist, but not a Highwayman. He is credited with teaching technique to several of the Highwaymen and influencing the styles of the rest of them during a time in our history when it wasn’t a popular thing to do.Miles = 27.