Lacee Hooper has a number of things she has to do before she dies. After a family vacation stop in Vancouver that list was shortened by one.
“Riding a Segway was on my bucket list!” the Powell, Wyo., resident said in an email. A few weeks ago, and despite some rain, she and her family made it happen and took in some local history in the process.
“My husband was the only one who was a little nervous,” she said. “He wasn’t sure if he would get the hang of it. The kids jumped right on and had it figured out in seconds.”
Her two boys were so confident, Hooper said, they took to “jumping” tree roots and going “off road” through a field along their tour.
That dynamic is pretty typical, said Vancouver Segway Tours co-owner and guide Raymond Bouvier, also known as “Segway Ray.”
After giving close to 1,000 to 1,200 tours to well over 4,000 clients, Bouvier says it’s still hard to tell who will and won’t be nervous; generally speaking, kids are almost always the confident ones. Regardless, everyone starts their trip with a quick how-to, and the tour rolls off with lots of history and moves at a slower pace to help everyone build their confidence.
Rain or shine
While there are a handful of walking tours around Fort Vancouver and downtown, Vancouver Segway Tours is unique.
Operating out of a small space near the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Visitor Center, Bouvier guides up to six visitors at a time on an informative tour around the site, to Pearson Field, the Columbia River waterfront, Esther Short Park and Officers Row.
So long as the clients are willing, Bouvier offers tours year-round, rain or shine — unless there’s snow or lightning.
For the uninitiated, the Segway Personal Transporter, as it’s officially called, is a battery-powered, two-wheeled machine that uses gyroscopic sensors and accelerometer-based leveling sensors to move and balance. Its role in the modernist zeitgeist as a high-tech, and perhaps slightly silly, alternative to walking was cemented first in the television show “Arrested Development” and later the Kevin James movie “Mall Cop.”
How fast do they go?
“A Segway can reach a top speed of 12.5 miles per hour, akin to the top speeds of a squirrel or a fat, slow cheetah,” according to a description of Bouvier’s business on the discount website Groupon.com.
Career change
Bouvier was about 20 years into a career as a pension actuary when he first rode a Segway on a tour of battlefields in Virginia during a family vacation to Washington, D.C. The whole family enjoyed them, but his wife loved it so much she bought one.
A few years later, changes at his employer meant he and his family would have to move to Los Angeles or San Francisco to keep his job. Both locations were nonstarters — and to boot, he was tired of being an actuary.
“A little while back, we did a Segway tour and we all loved them. … Three or four years later, suddenly we’ve got to come up with something,” he said. “It was my wife’s idea to do Segway tours.”
Bouvier was a little skeptical at first, because while Vancouver is rich in history, its not exactly a tourist destination. The couple figured out a route, and Bouvier, already a history buff, dove into Vancouver lore for points of interest he could share. Then they bought a few more Segways and rented a space downtown a year before moving onto the fort.
So far, the business has been running smoothly — especially this time of year.
“It’s hard to take vacations in the summer,” he said, when he occasionally finds himself giving three tours per day, seven days a week. “If that stretches out for a month and a half, I start wishing there was rain, so I can postpone a few tours.”
Boost for fort
Bob Cromwell, chief of interpretation at Fort Vancouver, said having the Segway company at the site aligns with the agency’s mission of getting people on site and learning.
“There’s many different ways we deliver our interpretive messages, and we’re finding when you give a variety of ways (visitors are) going to be more receptive,” he said. “Maybe a walking tour might not excite them, but on a Segway might grab their attention.”
Bouvier has a strong grasp of local history, and he’s quick to share it at several key stops along the way, be it at the fort, the Columbia River promenade, or the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Wall.
How much time he spends talking history or leading a gaggle of helmet-clad clients on Segways depends on the group. But no matter his audience, he’s sure to include plenty of self-deprecating jokes.
“I often tell people the history is optional,” he said. “If someone is not that interested in it, then why bore them with it — but the jokes aren’t optional. I just can’t help myself,” he said.
Bouvier’s approach seems to be working. On the many websites where people find and review local businesses, Vancouver Segway has more than 100 favorable reviews.
“He was disarming, made us feel at ease and you could tell he really enjoyed what he was doing,” Hooper said. Adding, “Even though it was raining we all had a great time and would most definitely do it again if I was in the area.”
