The Heather Jones Bucket List: New Thing #85

May 16, 2015

My oldest niece Charlee came to visit me this weekend, and she's been dying to take a Segway tour. Unfortunately, since she's not yet 16, she isn't allowed to do so. (I'm not really sure why.) Instead, I found an alternative that I thought she would like, and I kept it a secret from her. I think the surprise aspect of my aunt/niece weekends is one of my favorite parts. They never know what they're going to do when they visit, and that anticipation adds to the fun.

This time around I found a Trikke tour of Forest Park to take her on. Basically, a trikke has two "legs" to stand on and a throttle/brake on the handle. This is different than the Segway that uses your bodyweight/balance to accelerate and decelerate. But, it still has an adrenaline/speed factor, so I knew Charlee would love it!

I opted for a tour of Forest Park this time around, as opposed to downtown, mainly because my Segway tour a few years ago was downtown. (And, I'll save the downtown tour for the Segway when she turns 16.) The skies weren't looking very spectacular when we left my house, so I was afraid it would end up being canceled. Segways can run in the rain, but I wasn't sure about the trikkes.

Fortunately, by the time we arrived, the sun came out and we had a beautiful day to ride. We were even the only ones on our tour, so we had them all to ourselves!

Getting the Trikkes ready.

She really was excited to try these, despite her somewhat awkward stance.

Safety first! (Charlee HATED these silly helmets.)

As a 30-something, I refuse to duckface, unless my teenage niece requests it of me. So, please don't judge. (I prefer to think of it as my Blue Steel face anyways.)

She was a quick learner.

How did she get so tall?

Our guide helped to guide her while she learned how to throttle/brake.

And off she goes!

So, I'm writing this blog nearly a year after it happened (don't judge me), and the details are a bit fuzzy. I just completely forgot to document it after it happened. Here are the details I do remember:

1. Charlee was a natural. She had no problems learning to drive it, and she freaking loved it. Especially when we got to go fast.

2. It took me a bit longer to feel comfortable. I absolutely love Segways, but something about that damn throttle/brake was tricky at first. I couldn't hit the sweet spot so I wasn't jerking all over the place.

3. I eventually got the hang of it, though I felt like my Trikke wasn't as fast as theirs. Could have just been user error though. :) I did end up switching with Charlee at one point to see the difference, and we did notice that ours weren't the same. Hers was easier to drive, and she even said she had difficulty with mine. So, maybe it wasn't user error after all!

4. Having the tour to ourselves was awesome, as we got more time to drive, and less time dealing with other people.

5. We toured lots of path/areas of FP that I've never seen before, so it was a nice way to learn more about the awesome park in my back yard. It was a bit muddy though, due to the rains the week before, so we had a few tricky spots walking our trikkes through the mud.

6. The free-for-all he let us do in the Muny parking lot was the best. It was completely empty and we could zip around all we wanted! (That's where Charlee and I switched bikes.)

7. There weren't many opportunities to take pictures (you can't drive these things with one hand...trust me, I found that out the hard way), so I didn't get too many of the day.