Have you ever been on a Segway tour? I went for the first
time this past weekend with my husband, my mom, and my sister. My sister had
bought us the tickets for a guided tour of Washington D.C. last Christmas but
between my broken ankle and my mom’s foot surgery and all of our busy schedules
it took us until October to schedule the tour. My mom and sister arrived at our
house Thursday night and all day Friday we prayed the rain would stop in time
for our tour on Saturday. Which, thankfully, it did. So we headed out to the
city with cheerful hearts while my daughter stayed home with her favorite
babysitter.
Segways are not hard to ride, but it took me a while to get
used to it. You use your body weight to move forward and backwards. Lean
forward and the Segway rolls forward. The more you lean the faster it rolls, up
to 12 mph. Lean left and right to turn and lean backward to slow down or move
backwards. If you want to hold still stand perfectly upright and balanced (not
easy). I’ve noticed that since I broke my ankle I am anxious about unstable
surfaces and the possibility of falling. So at first I was scared stepping up
and down off the platform and rolling back and forth. Fortunately our guide was
patient and kind and the company (Capital Segway in downtown D.C. is the
company we toured with: http://www.capitalsegway.com)
gives you a little lesson in the store and then takes you to a nearby park to
practice before you hit the streets. By the time we really got going I had
mastered the controls although my feet were cramping from tension at first.
After about the first hour I felt comfortable with it and was able to relax and
enjoy the stories our guide was telling via headset.
Touring D.C. by Segway during a government shutdown is still
fun. The monuments and museums are closed but you can’t go into them on a
Segway anyway, and you can still look at the buildings. We were able to cover
about 7 miles of touring in 2 hours, which is much more than we’d have managed
walking in that time. We zipped past the White House, the Vietnam memorial, the
Lincoln Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial (which we slipped inside
to see while our guide watched the parked Segways… I think Congress needs to
take a field trip down there and read the words engraved on the walls). Then
back up past the Washington Monument (covered in scaffolding) and up the
streets that line the National Mall. Which are currently open to pedestrians
and bikes but not cars, so we were able to take the Segways up to their top speed
of 12mph and cruise up the empty streets. We stopped in front of the Capitol
building, which is still beautiful despite the people who work there. Then back
up through D.C. streets to our starting point.
About the only sour note in the entire outing was the
bystander who felt called upon to call out “Nice exercise!” in a sarcastic
sneering tone as we guided the machines up a ramp onto a sidewalk. Since I was
still focused on staying on the Segway (ramps were a little nerve wracking
throughout the tour) I didn’t respond. I probably wouldn’t have anyway, since I
don’t typically engage in arguments with strangers on the street. But what I
wanted to say is “Hey buddy, back off. I’m not stupid. I know I’m not getting
any exercise here. That isn’t the point of today’s adventure. I’ll take a walk
later today for exercise, but the point of this tour is to spend some time with
my family doing something fun that I’ve never done before. So don’t judge!”
Obnoxious pedestrians aside, it was an outstanding outing. I
learned some things I didn’t know about the city I live in (the National
Gallery of Art has a tunnel connecting the East and West wings! I will have to
check that out if the government ever opens up again!), I shared a mild adventure
with my family, and I learned a new (albeit somewhat useless) skill. That’s a
great way to spend a Saturday.
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