Segway

On Saturday, Pooteewheet and I went on a Segway ride at St. Anthony Main.  She bought two gift certificates as a birthday present 11 months ago, and we finally got around to using them.  It was a perfect day for it as far as I was concerned.  Just a little on the cool side, but not so cold my hands hurt, and I didn't have to worry about sweating or having to strip off clothes.

You do have to wear a helmet during the ride, but for the introduction - stepping on and stepping off before the video - there's someone there to catch you. Here's Pooteewheet learning to move around in front of the Segway shop.  The little round circle by her feet gives her a shield frequency of 257.4.  Useless against polaric energy, but useful against uncloaked Romulans.
 

Jason, one of our two tour guides, and the voice over actor who did the narration for the training video, done in something of a native Chicagoan.  Perhaps one of the better training videos I've ever had to sit through.  He and Renata did all of the history bits of our tour and they did a great job.  We talked to Renata for quite a while at the back of the pack as I knew just enough history about the falls area from the  underground Twin Cities book I'd read to be able to have a conversation.  Later, when we went out to the open area by St. Anthony Main that allows you to get close to the falls, there was a plaque talking about what I'd heard about how they'd almost collapsed the falls in the past.

In the background, you can see our famous Grain Belt Beer sign.


The rail bridge between Boom Island (where they used to process lumber in the lumbering days) and Nicollet Island (home of the Grain Belt sign and DeLaSalle High School).  I hadn't realized there was a whole neighborhood out there.  Apparently it used to be the hangout for a bunch of a hippies and a pet donkey.  I remember this bridge from when I was in college and it didn't have the safety rails.  People would sit on the girders on the sides and fish.


THIS IS MY SEGWAY.  THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT, BUT THIS ONE IS MINE.  MY SEGWAY IS MY BEST FRIEND.  WITHOUT MY SEGWAY I AM USELESS.  I MUST DRIVE MY SEGWAY TRUE.  I MUST DRIVE IT SURER THAN ANY OTHER SEGWAY WHICH IS ATTEMPTING TO RUN ME OFF THE ROAD...



The Mill Museum.  We stopped here for a cookie and coffee.


Dorks on Segways!  I told Pooteewheet it's my goal to always have my picture taken in Marvin clothing from now on.  Proof I'm rapidly sliding toward retirement age.  That's the Stone Arch Bridge in the background.  Where we're at is a common place for people to smoke their weed, according to our tour guide.  We didn't smoke any weed - we were driving.


Stone Arch Bridge sans dorks.


Putting one dork back in the view.  Pooteewheet is apparently monstrously shorter than I am when I'm up on a Segway.  The ride was 2.5 hours long.  Quite the trip and we were actually sort of tired at the end.  It went across the Stone Arch Bridge, down into the ruins park, back up past the 35W Bridge Memorial and the Guthrie, into the Mill City Museum, along the riverfront to Boom Island, and back along Nicollet Island.  Eryn was incredibly jealous, as we'd dumped her with Grandpa and Grandma for the evening.  She was too young for the Segway and too young for the Haunted Basement.  We let her have our Segway drivers licenses and told her if she saved her allowance, she could buy a Segway for $6999 and then the age restriction wouldn't apply.