Our video introducing you to SegTours of Gettysburg was previously posted here.

Following is a sample of the videos that were created by our customers to document their Segway tours of the Gettysburg battlefield.

If you’ve created your own video or you know of someone who did, then please let us know so that we post it here!

Renae on her Segway haha

Yesterday morning, Melanie Gardner of Fox 43 Television (WPMT) from York, PA visited us.  She interviewed Sherry and Rob Wingert, a Licensed Battlefield Guide on camera and scooted around the Cyclorama parking lot on a Segway.  It was a very quick visit but we appreciate any press efforts to spread the word!

This brief text from their web site accompanied the video:

“Grab your helmet and get ready to travel through time on a Segway! A cool tour in Gettysburg takes you through the historic battlefields from the view of this 2-wheeler. Easy to ride and it is easy on the environment! Start rolling your way through Adams County.”

Thanks for visiting us, Melanie!

Now THIS is my kind of commercial! I’m just sorry that we didn’t have a hand in making it.

Thanks to all who came out to visit us at our Segway obstacle course in Gettysburg on Memorial Day Weekend! We had a lot of fun and the weather was great. We are considering doing it again on another summer weekend.

Following are some photos from the four day event.

SegTours, LLC is proud to announce this very special attraction over the Memorial Day Weekend.

Come learn to ride a Segway at our special training area and obstacle course!

Segways are self-balancing, easy, and a lot of fun! Our staff will teach you how to ride and our training area will allow you to test those skills through a series of challenging obstacles.

A $10 entrance fee includes training and one-on-one supervision throughout the course.

Where: The parking lot of the American Civil War Museum and Gettysburg Gift Center, 297 Steinwehr Avenue.

When:
Fri, May 22: 5pm - 8pm
Sat, May 23: 10am - 8pm
Sun, May 24: 10am - 8pm
Mon, May 25: 10am - 2pm

PLUS: Graduation from the course entitles you to:
• a $10 discount on a Segway battlefield tour (limit 1 per customer)
• a 2-for-1 coupon for entrance to the American Civil War Museum.

Please call for more information: 717-253-7987

OK, maybe we’re not the stars of the show (in fact, if you blink you might miss us ) but we’re happy to have participated in an online video that was produced by the Pennsylvania Tourism Office.

“Peter Arthur Stories” (www.pastories.com) is actually a set of four short video “chapters” that tells the story of a man in search of a lost love. The man’s name is Peter Arthur (initials=PA, get it?) and his search takes him all over the State of Pennsylvania, exposing him (of course) to a variety of beautiful towns, pastoral settings, and tourist attractions.

In Chapter 2 (”Love Ain’t Civil”), Peter visits Gettysburg where he finds himself accidentally in the middle of a Civil War re-enactment — and there just happens to be a Segway tour that is passing by at that moment! Our acting debut is about 2:27 into that episode and there are a few shots of us thereafter.

Sadly, we have no dialog and most of our full day of filming was left on the cutting room floor, including the one in which the “bad guy” appropriates one of our Segways to chase after Peter. There’s just a shot of him riding away on a Segway with no explanation of how he got it. Oh, well. There’s one last shot of a Segway near the end (8:14) of Episode #4.

SegTours, LLC and the individual “Segway Folk” are even listed among the credits at the end of Episode #4.

We regularly get asked how often it happens that someone is simply unable to learn how to ride a Segway. The answer is almost never. Honestly, it is much easier than it looks!

Until you’ve experienced it, it is hard to imagine that the Segway is really self-balancing. After all, there are only two wheels, right? Ah, the wonders of technology!

Here’s a case in point: two nuns from the “Religious of Jesus and Mary” in Washington D.C. recently came by for a tour of the Gettysburg battlefield! Sister Margaret and Sister Mary Leonard were dubious that they could do it but they surprised even themselves. After a brief training class and 20 minutes of practice, they were on their way, touring the western side of the Gettysburg battlefield on a Segway!

It was one of the first really warm days of Spring and the park was busy — so our group turned more than a few heads. Oh, did we mention that Sister Mary Leonard is 82 years old young?

The sisters wrote two days later to thank us for “the wonderful tour of Gettysburg and the battlefield and the marvelous experience with a Segway!”

100 yards south on Taneytown Road and within eyesight of our location is the old Gettysburg Visitor’s Center which closed in April 2008 in favor of the new VC on Baltimore Pike.

The NPS service has long planned to tear the old building down in its ongoing plan to restore the battlefield as much as possible to its 1863 appearance. In fact, they’ve made more progress since this photo was taken on Tuesday and the building is now almost completely leveled to the ground. The plan is reportedly to also tear up the parking lot and re-plant the area with grass and trees.

Next on the chopping block is the Cyclorama building but it is embroiled in a federal lawsuit so it may not be torn down any time soon. The NPS has said that they will also tear up most of the Cyclorama parking lot, leaving space for only 30 cars and 2 buses.

Sadly, the reduction in parking is likely to discourage visitors to the National Cemetery. Local merchants also fear that it will further isolate them from the park visitors, hastening a downward trend in foot traffic that they seen on Steinwehr Avenue since the Visitor’s Center was relocated last year.

The presidential retreat, Camp David (formally known as Naval Support Facility Thurmont) is less than 30 minutes away so Gettysburg is a easy jaunt for a presidential day-trip.

Rumors started flying last Fall that President Bush was planning to take a tour of Gettysburg. Sure enough, his motorcade swooped into town the next day. The Secret Service must not have heard that the Visitor’s Center has moved to Baltimore Pike because, upon passing the old VC on Taneytown Road, his motorcade realized their mistake and (like so many other people every day) they made a quick turn-around in our parking lot! According to Sherry, our staff person on duty, a long line of black limousines and SUVs turning around in our little lot was quite a sight!

Sherry hopped on a machine and followed the group, riding circles around the motorcade when it next paused at the Cyclorama parking lot. To Sherry’s great surprise, the President didn’t get out of his car to take a test ride. (We’re just grateful that the Secret Service didn’t shoot her!)

Members of the Bush family have always been strong advocates of Segways. President Bush #41 and his wife each own Segways. President Bush #43 would frequently give a Segway to a visiting dignitary as an example of American innovative technology. Yes, the younger President Bush famously fell off a Segway because he tried to hop aboard without turning it on!

We’ve invited President Obama to take a Segway tour of Gettysburg but we aren’t holding our breath.

We’re not afraid of rain! The Segway rides just fine in the rain and we won’t melt — so we’ll go if you’ll go. In fact, the flowers are starting to bloom and we mostly have the park to ourselves during rainy weather so it is a good time for a tour!

(Yes, we ARE afraid of lightning.)

In other news, the Park Service has installed the porta-potties at the Amphitheater which is about at our Western tour’s half-way point.

Flowers and porta-potties: two sure signs that Spring is here!