A Couple of East Coast Tours

We got back last evening from our Philadelphia vacation, and had a really fantastic time.

On Wednesday, we were participants in Capital Segway's twilight tour of Washington, DC. There were 16 (that's right... SIXTEEN) tour members, plus our two guides, Dave and Lenore. There were so many gliders on that tour the guides had to be on 180s - CapSeg had, literally, run out of i2/x2s. I was given a lean steer X2 to use, Bill was on what looked like a i180 with an X2 package. Within ten minutes, everyone was up and balanced on their Segs, with only one or two gliders still showing "fear" and trying to balance themselves, but those last little trepidations were gone within a couple of minutes of gliding in public (and a ten minute or so practice session around/through Jefferson Square Park).

Bill loved it - and couldn't stop talking about it on the drive back to Philly, so we also toured "Museum Row," in Philadelphia, with iGlide Tours, on Friday morning. On that tour, there were only four gliders, plus one tour guide, Dave.

The DC tour had not modified speed on the units; iGlide Tours had programmed Blinky to set a max speed of 8mph. On the Philly tour, Bill was also on a lean-steer. Also, the DC machines just looked niced, and better maintained; the iGlide Tours' units looked grungy and dirty, with nicks, broken and cracked plastic on the bases and bags that had been opened/closed so many times the zippers were broken.

The "feel" of the two tours couldn't have been more different. In DC, the overall feel almost seemed to be we're going to glide around town on Segways, and just going to happen to see some sights. In Philly, the sights and history were the reason for the tour, you just happened to be seeing those things on Segways. A plus for Philly is the tour provides gliders with an RF headphone set-up, and the guide actually serves as a tour guide, while in DC, everyone gathers at a photo-op site and the tour guides shout to the assembled gliders.

We enjoyed both tours, immensely, and appreciated them both for what they were. But, if we'd only had the cash on hand to take one of the tours....

Hell, three hours by car to DC is no biggie; and had we known about it, could have taken the train! :-)

Eric Payne
Glendale, AZ

(Got lots of pics, too... got to get them pulled of the card(s) and posted here in next couple of days)