Discover Statesville
Welcome to "Discover Statesville," the show that takes you on a captivating journey through the heart of one of North Carolina's most charming towns. Co-hosted by community advocates, Richard Griggs and Cindy Sutton, this weekly show brings you the pulse of Statesville, recording live at various spots throughout Statesville in partnership with Sow Media studios.
Join Richard and Cindy as they uncover the hidden gems and local treasures that make Statesville truly special. From the top-notch attractions and exciting events to the remarkable individuals who shape the community, "Discover Statesville" promises to leave no stone unturned.
Hungry for a culinary adventure? Tune in for their delightful restaurant reviews, where they'll guide you to the best places to eat in town. Whether you're a resident or a visitor, this podcast is your ultimate guide to all the things that make Statesville great.
You're invited to come along on this immersive journey, as "Discover Statesville" brings you closer to the heart of our vibrant town. Be prepared to be entertained, inspired, and enlightened each week, as Richard and Cindy share their passion for all things Statesville!
Discover Statesville
Statesville's Carolina BalloonFest: History and Highlights
Have you ever wondered what it's like to have a hot air balloon land in your backyard and how that could change your life forever? Join us as we chat with Sam Parks, the new executive director of the Carolina BalloonFest, who experienced just that in 1986. Sam shares his incredible journey from that unexpected moment to becoming a seasoned balloon pilot and a key figure in the ballooning community. Learn about the fascinating distinctions between hot air and gas balloons and hear Sam's stories of flying hydrogen balloons over vast distances. As balloon meister, Sam's role is crucial in ensuring flight operations, safety, and FAA compliance, drawing from his extensive experience, including his time at the renowned Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
In our conversation, we also uncover the monumental efforts of organizing the Carolina BalloonFest in Statesville, involving the dedication of nearly 900 volunteers. Dive into the rich history of ballooning in the community and get a sneak peek at the plans for the upcoming Carolina Balloon Museum in Statesville. Sam's enthusiasm for his new role is contagious as he encourages everyone to explore the upcoming events and attractions, emphasizing the sense of community and adventure that defines the festival. Whether you’re a ballooning aficionado or just curious, this episode promises an exciting glimpse into the vibrant world of hot air ballooning.
Are you ready to go up up and away in Statesville, north Carolina, we're gearing up for the 49th annual Carolina Balloon Fest. Tune in to hear about that and more.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Discover Statesville, the show that takes you on a captivating journey through the heart of one of North Carolina's most charming towns.
Speaker 3:All right, welcome back to Discover Statesville. Today we're joined by Sam Parks, longtime balloon pilot and new executive director of the Carolina Balloon Fest. Sam, welcome, thank you very much.
Speaker 4:We're glad to have you here with us this is kind of a treat to see your studio here and be part of the podcast.
Speaker 3:Hey, we're glad to have you. So I guess, to start off, sam, maybe tell us about your history in the world of hot air ballooning.
Speaker 4:Well, it's really directly connected to Statesville and I tell the story that a balloon landed in my back pasture around 1986, I guess it was. I think that's about right, just yesterday.
Speaker 4:Yeah, seems like Many, many years ago. And the pilot doesn't even remember meeting me. And that's how important it is how we conduct ourselves, because you never really know the impact that you're going to have on someone's life. And in this particular case, Charles Willard, who was the national sales director for Tracy Barnes at the time at the Balloon Works, landed in my backyard and I went out there to help him pack up the balloon and I said how can I get involved in this? This looks really cool. And he said why don't you volunteer through the Chamber of Commerce?
Speaker 4:And lo and behold, I still have the letter that Danny Hearn sent me the very next year when he assigned me to an out-of-town pilot from Louisville, Kentucky. He was a veterinarian who came to participate, didn't know the roads, and I drove his truck. And that year he gave me a hot air balloon ride. And I can't remember if the rally in 86 was in September or October, because there was a time in which that we changed it, but they changed it back to September. Lo and behold, the next year I had my pilot's license and I was flying, and at the time it was the National Balloon Rally, Right, so that's how I got started.
Speaker 1:That's a cool story. Yeah, because Richard said you're the new executive director, but you're certainly not new to the Statesville Carolina Balloon Fest and ballooning. You used to be the balloon meister right for this festival. So tell us a little bit about that and then tell us why you left us for a little while and what brought you back. Let's talk about that.
Speaker 4:Thank you. Yes, I got my pilot's license private in 88 and went on to become a commercial pilot. I've got a gas balloon rating so, and I've flown balloons in almost every country around the world.
Speaker 1:I'm going to interrupt you real quick. Tell us what a gas balloon rating is, because people the most of our listeners don't even know the difference about what you just said. Tell us that there is a different type of hot air balloon.
Speaker 4:The most common one that you see is a hot air balloon. Those are the ones that you see out at the festival. You blow them up with a fan, essentially, and you turn on the burner and you heat up the air and that's called a hot air balloon. But there are some balloons that you actually fill with a lighter-than-air gas, such as helium or hydrogen.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 4:I have a hydrogen balloon, which then you fill it up and I can fly for great distances Wow. So it's a different kind of animal altogether, because there's no heater, there's no burner. Obviously, you wouldn't want to have a burner around hydrogen fuel Remember the Hindenburg incident but I can fly from distances that's over 1,000 miles. Wow. And your fuel whereas propane is your fuel for hot air, sand is your fuel, if you will, for gas balloons, oh, cool. So the more sand you can carry on board, and you dip it out each time the gas cools and you go back up again.
Speaker 1:Okay, very cool yeah. So I interrupted you. That's okay, balloonmeister, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yes, many, many years ago I guess it was around mid-90s or so I was asked to be the balloon meister. I did that for a couple of years. What does that mean? Well, it means that I was in charge at the time of all flight operations, making the final decisions whether or not the balloons are going to go up and if there's going to be any kind of a competition for that day, what it's going to be.
Speaker 4:And I work closely with the FAA to make sure that the race and the competition and also the flights are all within the FAA regulations.
Speaker 3:So sort of the liaison between festival operations and all the balloon pilots.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. It's almost like air traffic control, but you have way more than just getting them out of a pattern. You basically overhaul the safety aspects of the entire rally. So I did that for a couple of years, took a break and then, before I left in 18, I had been the balloon meister for 12 years, and so I had a staff of about 20 different volunteers, such as weather people, scoring personnel, propane refueling managers all that. It really goes into putting this on just from a flight operation standpoint, wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so where did you go in?
Speaker 4:18?.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Well, let's go back just a little bit further. In 2011, a friend of mine who's originally from Burlington, north Carolina, also a balloon pilot, took a job at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta as the event director, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. As the event director. He had been there for a couple of years and he asked me to come out to join the flight operations team for that event. So I started out there as the assistant balloon meister and then a couple of years went to balloon meister. So I did that actually for six years. One day, one of the board of directors came to me and says how would you like to come to work for us full time? And at the time my wife and I had owned and operated a heating and air conditioning company in Statesville for 28 years.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's how I met you.
Speaker 4:Yes, and the knees were saying you need to retire, and so it was a good time in our lives to basically just try a new adventure. So we sold our heating and air conditioning company in spring of 2018, moved to Albuquerque, new Mexico, and I was the director of operations and then moved up to the executive director position Wow, Now, that's the largest festival in the world the world.
Speaker 4:Yes, it's a nine-day event, which actually starts in about nine days from now because it's right before the Carolina Balloon Fest, but they typically have somewhere between 500 and 600 hot air balloons. And then last year I organized the Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race to take place there in Albuquerque, so they incorporate some gas balloons as well, but they have over 100 special shape balloons and it runs for nine days and the attendance is somewhere between 900,000 and a million people over that length of time.
Speaker 3:Pretty decent-sized event, huh.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so I retired. We'd have to build a few more hotels for that.
Speaker 4:We need a much bigger field. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and more time.
Speaker 3:But that's cool and then. So you've been back here, and when did you take over as the executive director of the Carolina Balloon Fest?
Speaker 4:Pretty much the end of May this year, I retired from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in December, considered what I wanted to do next and, as I mentioned, my friend Don Edwards, who moved to Albuquerque. He, coincidentally had come back to Statesville and was running the Carolina Balloon Fest and he had had a automobile accident this past winter and he just decided that his priorities changed. He wanted to go to Alaska to fish oh man, which.
Speaker 2:I can understand that.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Don if you're listening. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And so he called me up and said hey, I know you're not doing anything. Are you going to fully retire or are you going to work a little bit longer? So, as they say, god just had a hand in this plan. So, as it turns out, I came back and started working here the end of May.
Speaker 3:Wow, so right in it, because it's just a few months Right in it so the 49th annual.
Speaker 4:It is.
Speaker 1:Carolina Balloon Fest is coming up, so I imagine you are crazy busy with that. So we appreciate you breaking out time to be with us.
Speaker 4:Well, it's raining today, so I can take a little bit of a break and then it's going to be, full bore to the 50th right.
Speaker 1:I mean you've got a lot of planning to do, but tell us special shapes, anything you want people to know about this year's event.
Speaker 4:Well, what's interesting about this year's event? If you look at the chronological order, this whole thing got started in 1974. However, covid put a pause on the Carolina Balloon Fest for two years. They missed 20 and 21. So if you count up the number of years and they count up the number of festivals, it doesn't quite line up. But this is the 49th festival and traditionally they have somewhere around 50 to 60 balloons, which is a very good size festival. As a matter of fact, it's the second longest running festival of its kind and it's the largest festival of its kind on the East Coast. Okay, so part of my goal is indeed to make Statesville the balloon capital of the East.
Speaker 1:Well, we already are, you know, self-proclaimed, but we are the balloon capital of the East. Oh, I'm going to spread it wide and far. There you go.
Speaker 3:No one can tell us otherwise.
Speaker 2:You're going to ink it right, Make it permanent.
Speaker 1:We are. We are looking forward to that. We are looking forward to that. I saw you guys had posted you do have some special shapes this year. We do, and it's more than just hot air balloons, right, you have a kids zone and lots of great festival food and live music. A beer garden.
Speaker 4:Beer and wine garden. We try to really make this an all-family friendly event, give the parents and the kids something to do all day long, and it's important for us that are involved in the event to keep that in mind. I mean, there are some mission statements that we adhere to. However, it really is all about the family. We want to make sure that the families have a great time. Keep everyone safe. The family we want to make sure that the families have a great time. Keep everyone safe. But yes, we do have a schedule that starts at approximately seven o'clock in the morning, right after sunrise, and it runs all the way through till eight o'clock at night.
Speaker 1:For three days. And so I think that's important to note.
Speaker 3:You know about the structure of the festival and that you know there is entertainment and things to do from the moment the gates open until they close, because, as you're well aware, as we're well aware, you know, what we look at is oh, it's a beautiful day outside Does not necessarily mean that it's a beautiful day for hot air balloons to fly. That's right. You know we're feeling the weather on the ground. Obviously, wind changes the higher we go. But I think that's one of the great sort of ways that they've built the Carolina Balloon Fest is that, even in the unfortunate circumstance that balloons can't take off, you guys will usually always try to at least do an inflation if possible, right, and then, in the event that that doesn't work, there's still live music and all the other things to keep the family entertained.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:It's still worth going to, absolutely and really. The culmination each night is the balloon glow, and that is something very special that when the balloons light up at night with a special burner that they have, it makes them look like huge lightning bugs and it's like a seven-story tall bug. They just glow and it's a beautiful thing. Yeah, it's like a seven-story tall bug, they just glow and it's a beautiful thing. Yeah, it's cool. And so the weather team is constantly monitoring the weather to see if we can do some safe operations. And that's the key. We want mass ascensions, we want balloons flying in, we want to be able to provide those passenger rides that people really have as a bucket list item to be able to ride in a hot air balloon. But if that doesn't happen, we've got music, entertainment, we've got all kinds of things that they can do and see, because you've got to remember that balloons will take off at about sunrise and then within a couple hours of sunset, so there's a lag there in the middle that we need to entertain our guests.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but you have some tethered balloon rides throughout the day we do yes, which is a lot of fun, and that's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and visiting with the balloon pilots. I see a lot of people doing that.
Speaker 3:Fair food.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Fair food. Fair food yeah.
Speaker 1:Sam, you mentioned your mission. Talk to us about the board, the Carolina Balloon Charities and what the mission is and how you guys give back to the community. I think that's important.
Speaker 4:You know I mentioned before that when I first started going, the event was actually called the National Balloon Rally and they changed the name, which I fully supported. But we have a charity that's called National Balloon Rally Charities and then we do business as the Carolina Balloon Fest, and so we have mission statement, points of interest that I think are vitally important for us, and we keep this in our minds. We want to promote ballooning, we want to promote the city of Statesville, the state of North Carolina, but we also want to be able to give back to local charities, and so if we're successful and we're blessed with good weather, the idea is to be able to always put back a little bit of a nest egg so we can continue this legacy, but then give money back into the local charities so they can continue to do good things that they do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in turn I've seen the charities over the past several months saying you know, come, help us volunteer for the. How many volunteers does it take to put on a balloon fest?
Speaker 4:As they say, it takes a village, and it's really true when it comes to putting on an event like this. I would say you're looking at approximately 800 to 900 different volunteers to help put this on, and it's only for three days, so there's a whole lot of moving parts behind the scene.
Speaker 3:Yeah, both before and after as well, we have a very passionate community about hot air ballooning.
Speaker 4:It's in our DNA 100%.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's cool because we had the Full Bloom Film Festival not too long ago and the opening night of that there was a hot air balloon flu and we've got all these visitors in from outside of Statesville and from across the country and it's like, oh my gosh, you know.
Speaker 2:And it's always beautiful to see a hot air balloon.
Speaker 3:But I was talking to some folks that were here from California and it's like you know, I was like really that's, that's not that rare. I mean, balloon Fest is cool because you look up and you might see 20 or 30 balloons in there, but to see a hot air balloon in this area isn't all that abnormal which is really cool.
Speaker 4:It is, and that's the history that Tracy Barnes started in the early 70s and then Bill Meadows continued by taking the rally up to Love Valley and then bringing it back into Statesville was a great idea that the Chamber of Commerce did many, many years ago. So we want to continue to keep this festival going for the next 49 and the next 50 years.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, well, we like this Better and better every year.
Speaker 3:That's exactly it, yes.
Speaker 1:So, speaking about Statesville being a destination for ballooning, I always say any day is a day for hot air ballooning in Statesville.
Speaker 4:With the exception of today, as long as the wind. With the exception of today, as long as the wind and the weather's right A little rainy today, weather permitting.
Speaker 1:But that's not the only thing you're working on right. That's not the only reason you came back to Statesville. There's something else Born and raised right here.
Speaker 4:This is my hometown and I couldn't be happier to come back, not only for the Carolina Balloon Fest, but also I'm working with a group of really passionate investors to possibly build a museum here, to create a destination for people to come learn about hot air ballooning and learn about Statesville the land has already been purchased on I-40. And one day soon, we hope to have a building out there standing tall and proud promoting hot air ballooning and telling the legacy of Tracy Barnes and the history of ballooning here, not only in Statesville and Arlington County, but North Carolina. Yeah, that's amazing. North Carolina has a vast history of ballooning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the Carolina Balloon Museum, right. Carolina Balloon Museum. Yeah, that's amazing Because.
Speaker 4:North Carolina has a vast history of ballooning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the.
Speaker 4:Carolina Balloon Museum. Right, carolina Balloon Museum. Yeah, yep, we've got a logo, we've got land. Right now we're in the information stage. We're meeting with some supporters at the state level, county level, city level, and right before the end of the year you're going to see kind of a mass marketing campaign about how to go about finishing this project Right, and at that time, is that when you'd start to release sort of mock-ups and sketches and things of what this museum would look like? We already have a set of plans, oh that's okay.
Speaker 4:We've already gone that far A 3D model.
Speaker 4:We have a 3D model and we're just trying to do this in the correct way, not get too far ahead of ourselves to build some groundswell of support. But, yeah, we're happy to be talking about it and show you our plans. We're excited about it. But we're also excited about creating this as a welcome center for the city of Statesville, because it's literally going to be on the eastern edge of the city as you come in from, say, moxville or Winston-Salem, so you'll have an opportunity to come in and learn all about Statesville as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very excited about that. That's amazing. Yeah, we love it. So Carolina Balloon Fest is always the third weekend of October, right? It is Keep it simple. So it's the 18th, 19th and 20th.
Speaker 4:It is.
Speaker 1:Are there still some balloon flights available? Are there still some pilots that have flights available?
Speaker 4:There are, and you can learn all about the event at our website, carolinaballoonfestcom. But just to kind of back up just for a minute, we actually start the rally Friday morning on an unofficial capacity. Okay, we have balloons flying all over the city from various locations and our special shapes will be here, so it's kind of an unofficial start, but then our full official mass ascension is Friday afternoon. And, yes, there are some sites excuse me, some spots available for any of the other balloons that you can go on our website and just pick on a balloon and pick on a pilot and that will tell you whether or not they have some availability.
Speaker 1:How many balloons are there this year?
Speaker 4:We have 55.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, that's great 55.
Speaker 4:And that seems to be our sweet spot for the size of festival grounds that we have and that's also a great show for the crowd. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I've got to have room to inflate everybody.
Speaker 4:We do because we want a lot of people out there.
Speaker 1:Sure yeah, and still volunteer opportunities too. Someone wants to go to carolinaballoonfestcom be a part of it?
Speaker 4:Absolutely. We welcome volunteers. We'll put you to work. If you want to volunteer, All you have to do is just go to the volunteer page on our website and just click on the link that says I want to volunteer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, not that all that is not exciting enough. But early on, when we first started talking, you said you have your special gas license and I just happened to know that you just got back from Germany right, doing something really cool, and I think our listeners would like to hear about that that you, that in your free time you went and did this really cool thing with gas ballooning. So tell us, tell us about that adventure you just got back from. Well, thank you.
Speaker 4:I had already signed up to be the one of the directors for the Gordon Bennett gas balloon race when Carolina Balloon Fest hired me. So I said just remember, I'm going to be gone for about 10 days to Germany, but the Coupe Aeronautique Gordon Bennett gas balloon race is the oldest form of aerial aviation racing in the world. It goes all the way back to 1906. And I mentioned earlier about the gas balloons that are filled with helium and hydrogen. There's always a long-distance race each year. In this particular year it took off from Münster, germany, and the winners landed in the southern southwest corner of Portugal, about 2,100 kilometers over three days later. And it is an extremely, extremely unique sport where you're basically camping in the sky. But the rules are very simple you all take off from one spot. Whoever flies the furthest is crowned the winner.
Speaker 1:Camping in the sky?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so camping in the sky.
Speaker 1:As directing of this race. Are you flying, Are you?
Speaker 4:following them. Mission Control is basically set up a lot like your studio right here, and we also have what's called Gordon Bennett TV, where we do shows just like this, and each one of the balloons have a tracker on them so we can track them, like on the screen behind us here. So one of my responsibilities is to make sure that all the pilots can get through all the different airspaces as they traverse these different countries, because they went from Germany to France, to Spain and then Portugal, and each one of them has a separate set of air traffic control measures. So one of my roles is to make sure that they all get up and they all get down safely. This year, we had 21 different teams from 17 different countries participating Wow, very cool. And who won the Austria 2 team participating Wow, very cool. And who won the Austria 2 team? Okay, yes, and so that means that in two years, the race will take off from Austria.
Speaker 1:All right. The United States of America, you'd have a state's old gas balloon that can win that.
Speaker 4:Well mine is a little on the small size. Mine wouldn't be very competitive.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:What size basket are these balloons?
Speaker 4:Well, not much bigger than the table in which they were sitting behind, and one side typically has a kick-out panel to where you can lay on a bench and stretch your feet out. But the way it normally works is one is taking a nap while the other pilot is flying, and then you switch off every three or four hours.
Speaker 1:Kick-out panel, like the side of the basket, opens up Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:We've got to hang a few. Cindy would love that.
Speaker 1:So fun fact. When Richard and I started this podcast August of 2023, so a little over a year ago neither one of us had ever been on a hot air balloon flight.
Speaker 4:Oh well, that's sad yeah.
Speaker 3:We remedied that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we remedied. We actually launched this podcast midair on Facebook Live. That's a cool thing, and luckily you couldn't tell that I was frozen in place. If the side of the basket was open I might not have made it through. But I'd go anytime, it was the most amazing experience.
Speaker 4:Well then, now that you've done it, let's do it again, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:We should do like an anniversary podcast.
Speaker 3:There you go, just throwing it out there.
Speaker 1:An anniversary podcast and it's like you say.
Speaker 3:I mean, I had never been in one before and so it's. I mean, as soon as we were airborne, it's just like, oh my God, and when we landed, you're moving with the wind, so it's very calm, oh yeah, very tranquil.
Speaker 4:It was unbelievable, I mean just silence it was amazing.
Speaker 1:Except for us talking Right.
Speaker 3:And we were up there with Charles Page, right, and we were up there with Charles Page. So it was like, if we do freak out, we're up there with Charles Page. Like who better to be like, hey, it's going to be okay.
Speaker 1:And he'd have to wait, hoping we'd stop talking so he could goose a little.
Speaker 3:He does have to do that on occasion. It was great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it was amazing and I have a severe fear of heights. Um, even at the very last minute, I was trying to figure out how to crawl out of the basket and I think I let michelle hepler get in because she was chasing, so it was just too much, too difficult to get out. I'm talking to her and I had convinced myself. I'm like let's switch. And she's like okay, if that's what you want to do and then she's like oh, balloon, ride nice and then like wait, we're in the air.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there we were, and it was it was Very cool.
Speaker 3:If you, if you, if you, if you're listening and you've never been, go to the website, look up one of those spots. Yeah, go ahead and check that off the list because it's worthwhile.
Speaker 1:Yes, A hundred percent recommend it.
Speaker 4:So is there anything else you want to make sure our listeners know about? Carolina Balloon Fest or ballooning in general? Yes, well, as far as Carolina Balloon Fest is concerned, you can also buy tickets there. Okay, and just remember that we have a free park and ride facility down at the Troutman Fairgrounds. So you go down there, there's no fee to park. You can get on a bus there's no fee for the bus, and it drops you right off at the front gate of the Carolina Balloon Fest main entrance, and then the buses basically run every 30 minutes all day long, so you can just leave your car back at the fairgrounds, get on a bus and leave all the driving to us, and you don't have to worry about getting in all that traffic. So that's very easy.
Speaker 4:And something else that we've actually two things that we've initiated this year that we haven't, that the organization hasn't done before, is that we've established a pin drop for Uber and Lyft rideshare. So if you don't want to drive and you've got somebody that's going to take you out there for rideshare, we've got a drop off point and a pickup point. And then something really cool, because there's other things that Statesville is known for, and one of them is cycling. I think you and I were just talking about that before the show started. Something that we're doing new this year is called Park and Bike. So if you're a cyclist, you can drive your vehicle with your bicycle on it. Park it at Celeste Hinkle School, get on your bicycle and it's a two and a half mile ride down Bethlehem Road, brings you in the VIP entrance and we have what's called bike valet parking.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that's a great idea, we're definitely going to help get the word out on that, so then there's no charge for parking.
Speaker 4:Of course you just have to pay your interest fee. But then there's no charge for parking. Of course you just have to pay your interest fee. But then leave your car at Celeste Hinkle, ride your bicycle in. You beat all the traffic. You get valet parking right up front. We will watch over your bike while you're enjoying the festival. When you're ready to leave, get your bike head on out to your car. That's a great idea.
Speaker 3:Park and cycle friends. Great family activity.
Speaker 1:Heard it right here from Sam Parks. I think. I think that's a great idea.
Speaker 4:I love that Well, we want to promote that. This is our first year, so we're kind of anxious to see how it goes over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, very cool. Well, you conquered Albuquerque. We have high hopes for you here in Statesville, Sam. I'm very excited to be here. I don't think I home, because I think we're blessed.
Speaker 4:We're lucky to have you here.
Speaker 1:Well.
Speaker 4:I'm blessed to have a hometown like Statesville. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1:Well, we invite you to Discover Statesville everyone. Make sure you don't miss the Carolina Balloon Fest and go to statesvillenccom to check out all the great things that are happening in our area.
Speaker 4:Thank you, Thanks, sam, thank you all, bye-bye.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining Discover Statesville. You can email us at discover at statesvillenccom. Check us out on Facebook at Discover Statesville, nc hashtag Discover Statesville and our website, statesvillenccom. Catch us next week as we continue on our journey to uncover the hidden gems, culinary adventures, entertainment, and to be inspired and enlightened as we Discover Statesville.
