Samson Exhausts Systems

Thank you for your concern and interest in our poor ol' Samson blimp during our deep moments of sorrow. We are still praying for our long lost beautiful blimp to return to us via winds aloft but it may be taking a world tour instead. Well, lets get to the story. I have been vending from the Corbin back lot on Main Street Daytona for the last couple of years and our presence has been marginal at best. So I came up with this blimp idea from a display I saw at the SEMA car show. The people also sell those dancing guys (or girls) that are powered by a high velocity fan to make them move and flap around like a spaghetti noodle turned upside down. We had our Samson logo painted on both sides of the blimp as large as possible. It was a brilliant marketing plan and I was patting myself on the back for a job well done. Actually we were all very proud. Monday, March 4th 2002 was the day our beloved Samson blimp took life and breathed its first breath of helium.

 

The blimp was inflated, had an inside halogen light for night time, and was sent up into the beautiful skies of Daytona Beach. To acquire the correct height for best visibility we called our friend Tony, owner of American Legends Trailers on Beach Street across the Halifax river via cell phone and proceeded to send the blimp up to a point where the blimp could be seen clearly and let the rope out another 20 feet for good measure. The height ended up well over 200 feet. We decided with the inside light it was a great way for people to see where we were even at night so we left it up for the evening. The next morning the blimp was doing a great job up there for all to see. The dancing character was doing his thing and flopping around nicely as well. Then the winds whipped up and the Daytona Beach weather Gods were determined to show us guys from California how things were done in the deep south. One of the dancing characters which weighs in at about 30 pounds was blown off the top of the trailer which is about 14 feet tall, fell on the rope that anchored the blimp to the truck, and proceeded to slice through our rope and electrical cord holding the blimp just like a slice-o-matic (as seen on TV). That blimp took off towards the west at a very high rate of speed. It seems within seconds it was so far away it was completely out of sight. We aren't sure if it was heading home or what but it sure beat feet to the heavens above. We are now putting out a reward for anybody who can grab that rope and retrieve our blimp. Any blimp sightings would be appreciated as well. The reward would naturally be a free set of Samson pipes of the finders choice. Good luck to those who are down wind.