Hot day in Amish-land (with video)

As I may have mentioned in previous blogs, I took this past week off from work to relax and do some scootering. This also gave me the opportunity to do some job hunting, and take some video. 

Yesterday it was hot, blisteringly hot. Despite this, I took the PCX for a ride around the various Lancaster County tourist hotspots, and boy were they hot...

Anywho, it's amazing how well suited scooters are to buzzing around looking at stuff. I found this to be true in Gettysburg, Lancaster City, and now in Amish country. Having a machine that can take its time helps quite a bit. 

So yesterday, I went through Bird-in-Hand, Intercourse, Paradise, Strasburg (with a stop at the railroad), past Sight and Sound theater, and up through the outlets. 

I hope you enjoy the ride. 

Lancaster City, Pennsylvania's delightful Red Rose

It's small as cities go, but it's still a city and we're all either proud of it or terrified to go there, depending on how much country mouse we have in us. For myself, I'm more of a rural type, but I find Lancaster to be a non-threatening city. Certainly, there are some neighborhoods with a high crime rate, but overall, Lancaster is charming. Lancaster is the "Red Rose City," harkening back to the war of the roses in England centuries ago. Of course then there is York, the White Rose City, on the other side of the Susquehanna River.

I had to be in town anyway since I was taking the opportunity to visit my son while he's on ice...so to speak. Since I had to be in the city anyway, it gave me an excuse to vlog a bit. Added bonus, you get to see parts of the city most tourists never see. In point of fact, there are many tourists who visit Lancaster County who never set foot in the city and I really can't figure out why.

Lancaster has lots of shops, many restaurants, and quite a number of cafes, not to mention the farmers' markets. There are several museums including a small art museum. Lancaster is also home to a number of colleges.

So, if you come to Lancaster county to enjoy some sight-seeing, don't forget the city.

And don't litter...or some weirdo on a scooter might yell at you.

A celebratory trip...

Yesterday, I finally finished all my classes at the YTI - Motorcycle Technology Center. To top it off, I had a 4.0 for the last two terms. As my readers will know, I'd planned to go down the Skyline Drive, but that wasn't to be, so I settled for vlogging about local places. So as a celebratory trip, I went to Gettysburg.

It was a lovely day for a ride. The sun was shining and the heat was not terribly oppressive. I was reminded of trips through the area with my dad. He was a big history buff, particularly American histroy.

Some of my fondest childhood memories involve traveling with my dad. One year we visited all of Abraham Lincoln's childhood homes. That was something indeed. My dad may not have been perfect, but he did spend time with his children and made sure that we were given many good experiences that we would take with us to adulthood.

In any event, here is the video from the Gettysburg trip:

Tomorrow, we'll bop around Lancaster City, Pennsylvania.

It's not nearly as easy as you'd think.

The whole moto-scooto-vlogging thing is not as easy as it looks. Yeah, ok, you're yackin' away and shooting video and it's all good, then you have to pick and choose what you want to include in the final product, then your video editor takes a crap, then you've got enough video but not too much. It's just a bit crazy.

I'm shooting for ten to fifteen minutes on the final product, but that's not always possible. I did get about 40 minutes down to 22 on the last one. Today's video was even better. There is so much from which to pick and choose that it makes the process take quite a while, but so far I've been happy with the outcome.

Despite the complications, it's been fun. I get to meet people, chat with folks, and the reactions I get on camera can be priceless. I've also managed to fine tune the camera setup a bit.

Hopefully along the way I convince a few people that scooters are awesome.

Scooter Vlogging on the cheap

Moto-vlogging is a big deal and there is some money in it. I'm not certain if you get out of it nearly what you put in, but hey, I've got something different to offer, so why not give it a shot. I am now a Scooto-Vlogger!

As my readers will know, I've done a few videos here and there, but hadn't determined the best way to do moto-vlogging since I don't have a ton of disposable income. Last week, I tucked the earbuds and mic that came with my phone up into my helmet and that has worked passably well, except with no way to easily swivel the camera.

I had a gift card from Sears sitting in my wallet, and I had seen a possible option at K-mart, but it was a bit more than I had left on the gift card. Then I saw this online through the Sears website:

It's a "Zűuma" 1080p action camera, and you know what? It's not that bad. for a sub-$100 camera, I expected less than what I got, and I got more than I expected. Who knows how long it will last, but it seems to take good video. The adhesive is good 3M stuff.

The big problem was finding a place on my helmet to stick it, so it kinda sticks up off the top a bit further than I'd like, but it works very well and the image quality is good. The video below was made using both cameras. I think it came out pretty decent. There's even a Honda PCX and a very pretty Moto Guzzi in the video, and a bit of history on the Amish and Mennonites. I nearly forgot about the 1971 BSA! How could I forget that!

All in all, a great day for a ride.