Pedestrian Alert!

Consuelo meets Segway

We had a half day of on Saturday morning, and two of our co-workers, Norita and Darlene, invited us to try out the Segway tour on the river walkway in Indianapolis. They had done it, and thought it was so much fun, they wanted to go again. We both thought this would be a lot of fun, and agreed to do it.

The morning started with thunder and lightning at 6:30, but a glimpse of the radar loop indicated that no serious rain was on the way, so we headed down to White River State Park, almost in the heart of downtown.

The state park is where Indy put several of their museums, as well as many grassy areas and a wonderful promenade along the river and old barge canal. The promenade makes a wonderful Segway trail.

Norita and Darlene get Seglegs

The tours are set up for a maximum of 6 tourists and a tour guide. When we arrived, they already had 6 for the 9:00 AM tour. But it turned out that there were 2 no-shows, perhaps due to the weather, so we got to go. After a 10 minute instructional session, letting us know what would happen if we made common Segway mistakes, like jumping off, or trying to go too fast. Then we each had individual hands (and feet) on instruction until we got the hang of it.

In my opinion, riding a Segway is a little like a cross between riding a bike and skiing. As I got on the first time, I kept trying to balance myself, and the Segway responded by actually balancing me. The result was that the handle bobbed back and forth as we argued about what was up. But I quickly got my mind to stop overreacting and started moving forward and backward, running and stopping, and turning. The nest way to turn is to come to a stop, and lean the handle in the direction you want to turn. You just go around in a circle that way.

Downtown from the Promenade

After about 5 minutes of practicing, we headed down the sidewalk toward the river. For the first 10 minutes or so, we all had our Segways in the 'turtle' mode, which limited our speed to about 6 miles and hour. Knowing what it was like to reach maximum speed was important, because when the Segway slows itself down, the handle comes back at you. The automatic response is to push forward, but that just leans you back more. What you need to do is lean forward into the handle, so that you continue forward at full speed. After we got accustomed to this, we were all switched out of 'turtle' mode, reaching a new top speed of 10 mph.

The first part of the trail is inside the state park, along the White River, and lined by huge limestone blocks that are a common building material in Indy. We stopped a couple times for a view of downtown, and too a snap or two. You can see from the picture that the weather had not cleared, and we did get a sprinkle or two before we got done.

Norita, Consuelo and Darlene on the trail

After that, we crossed the Washington Street Bridge, which took us out of the park, and went down the other side of the river for a quarter mile or so. A sharp right turn onto the New York Street bridge brought us back across the river, and more parkway along the IUPUI campus. Here we saw McCormick's rock, the only remaining artifact of the founding family's homestead. The McCormick's later gained fame in the spice trade, and set up their empire in Baltimore.

We continued on to the canal. The walk along the canal is very beautiful. More museums are here, including the Museum of Indiana, which has playful symbolic blocks throughout the facade around the building, one for each county in Indiana, depicting an important characteristic of that place. Muncie, for example, has a bunch of pickle jars with Garfield in one, symbolic of Garfield's creator living there.

Mahlon at McCormick's Rock

Farther down the canal, there are fountains, waterfalls, and gondolas are available for Venetian style paddles with wine and cheese.

We spent nearly 2-1/2 hours on what was supposed to be a 1-1/2 hour tour, so long that the manager had gone out to look for us. But we were just moseying along, enjoying the scenery.

By the time we were done, I was comfortable enough on the Segway to do a little Segway dance, to the music that was playing in the clock in front of the Indiana Museum. And true to form, Consuelo liked it so much that she wanted to buy one, just for fun.