%20(1).png)
The Fresh Patch Podcast - Where Good Pets Get It.
Welcome to the Fresh Patch Podcast where we talk about everything, from dog training, to potty talk. It's time to save your rugs, and get REAL! Fresh Patch has been featured on Shark Tank, Oprah and the Today Show. We're here to discuss why every pet owner should have real grass and the benefits that come with it. So sit back, relax, grab some treats and cuddle your furry friend, you won't want to miss an episode!
The Fresh Patch Podcast - Where Good Pets Get It.
Drew's Crazy Stories
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Drew pulls back the curtain on his nine-year journey at Fresh Patch, revealing the hilarious, challenging, and sometimes disastrous moments that have shaped his experience from warehouse worker to Marketing Director.
The conversation kicks off with Drew's unforgettable first marketing event at the Beverly Hilton. What should have been a glamorous opportunity to showcase Fresh Patch to celebrities quickly devolved into chaos as torrential rain flooded the outdoor venue with four inches of water. Picture Fresh Patch products literally floating away and team members trudging through water with soaked shoes – a baptism by fire that left Drew vowing "never again" to outdoor events during rainy season!
Before his marketing days, Drew mastered warehouse operations where efficiency was paramount. He recalls the evolution from frustratingly slow strapping machines to more streamlined packing processes, and the creation of "Warehouse Olympics" – friendly competitions to see who could tape boxes, wrap pallets, and cut grass the fastest while maintaining quality standards. Even years later, Drew still enjoys showing newer warehouse staff he hasn't lost his touch.
The most epic tale involves a cross-country adventure delivering Fresh Patch supplies to their Georgia warehouse. Driving a 26-foot box truck limited to 65 mph through Texas highways with 80 mph speed limits, Drew watched in frustration as vehicles zoomed past. When his co-pilot revealed he couldn't drive at night or in windy conditions, Drew handled nearly all driving duties himself. The experience gave him profound respect for professional truck drivers who navigate these challenges daily.
These stories don't just entertain – they reveal the dedication, flexibility, and good humor that have helped build Fresh Patch into the successful company it is today. Catch Fresh Patch at upcoming events like Pups in the Park at Dodger Stadium and Cat Con in Pasadena – just don't expect to see Drew there if rain is in the forecast!
Thanks for listening to the Fresh Patch podcast brought to you by Fresh Patch. We hope you enjoyed the show. Give us a like or a follow, or shop all of our real grass supplies at freshpatch.com. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Youtube, Reddit
Welcome to the Potty Talk Podcast
Speaker 1Welcome to the Fresh Patch Podcast, where we talk about everything from dog training to potty talk. It's time to save your rugs and get real. This episode is brought to you by Fresh Patch, featured on Shark Tank, Oprah and the Today Show, and here are your hosts, Drew and Gabe.
Speaker 2Welcome everybody to episode 12 of the Potty Talk podcast. I'm sure you're familiar with us by now if you've been tuning in, but to introduce myself, I am Drew Marketing Director here at Fresh Patch and my name's Gabe Partnerships.
Speaker 3Coordinator. There we go, cool. So we're doing something a little different today. Guys, should be kind of fun. If you've tuned in before, you'd know that that drew is, as jason, our last guest put it, the real og. He's been working here for quite some time and so, um, you know, uh, you have a ton of fun stories. So I think we're gonna go today drew's craziest stories at fresh patch. So we did a little thinking, put together a few things and you know we're excited to hear you talk about it.
Speaker 2Yeah, no for sure. Yeah, it'll be nine years in August. I think I said that in another episode before. But yeah, nine years working here coming August and yeah, a lot of stuff has happened in nine years. So I got a lot of stories, some that can be shared, some that can't be shared, but we will share the ones that can be shared today. So, yeah, adventures I started in the warehouse, so there will be some of those stories, some marketing stories, other things. But Gabe's got the list. He'll take it away and lead me into it.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. For our first crazy Drew story and I've heard you talk about this one before it's an event that you guys worked not too long ago. It was called the Eco Lux, and there's a very unfortunate chain of events that happened.
Speaker 2Yes, yeah, take it from the beginning, please. Okay, so this was our first event. So, like I said, I was in the warehouse for most of my time here and it's been two and a half years. 2023 is when I came into. The marketing team came from the warehouse to the office, so we started, you know, kind of trying to expand the marketing and stuff and we're like, well, let's start going to events. Events and we got invited to this one called eco lux first event ever first event ever for well, for me at least.
Speaker 2I don't know if we had ever been to any other events before.
Speaker 3I don't think so either way, way to kick off the event journey exactly so it was really cool, like we were stoked about it.
Speaker 2it was going to be like a lot of you know b-list celebrities like coming through and it was just kind of like a charitable event, other vendors there and stuff, and we were just like okay this is something it was at the Beverly Hills Hotel no, beverly Hilton, beverly Hilton, and yeah.
Speaker 2So we're like okay, let's go do it. We ordered all our stuff. We got new banners, we got a tent and everything. We're all stoked about it. And the day the event comes and it is pouring rain like I don't know if anybody remembers southern california 2023 it was raining like hard throughout that whole spring right, that's when we had that uh tropical storm right yeah, yeah, I think so.
Drew's Ecolux Event Disaster
Speaker 2Yeah, I remember it was like it was just we just had non-stop rain, but this day was like one of the worst days and of course lands on the event and we get there, we, we're like, hopefully it's indoor, like we don't really know the setting and stuff Of course all outdoor and of course it's all on our favorite turf.
Speaker 3Amazing.
Speaker 2Yeah, no, my favorite right.
Speaker 3We all know how turf holds liquids.
Speaker 2Yeah, exactly so yeah, we've talked about that plenty of times, but so that was the first struggle. It was at times, but so that was the first struggle. It was like, okay, we're all on turf, we brought all our grass. It's hard to differentiate our grass from turf when they're side by side. That's how great our real grass is that it does look like turf. So, uh, once again real grass, but anyways, so we get our whole booth set up and the tent and everything like this is great, not really raining, yet like it's kind of just drizzling.
Speaker 2Like, okay, I think we get through this not too bad hour into the event, maybe not even an hour. It just starts absolutely dumping, like bad. And so, since we're in this courtyard area full of turf, for some reason the architect or the engineer who designed this hotel decided to put all the rain gutters to just flow out onto this courtyard. Oh my god. And then there's like no drainage in the turf. So after an hour we're legitimately sitting in like four inches of water, like I'm talking, our fresh patch, like this standard I remember, right here, was floating, like it started floating out of our booth and I was just like, okay, this is, this is ridiculous, like I, I like all our stuff's getting ruined. We're soaking wet wrinkly toes. Oh, dude, don't I'll get to that so so we're like you know what?
Speaker 2there was like an hour left of the event. We're like, we're done, like we're calling it. Most of the people that were attending were not even like going around to the booths anymore and stuff. It was just chaos. And so we're like, all right, let's start packing up and get everything out of here. So usually we like at events we'll have like a dumpster or something to throw our grass in or whatever. We had no trash cans. Everything had to go back in our van. We had our smaller van at this time too, so we didn't have the big one we have now. It was a mess. So we're all the way across the courtyard and we had to track everything to the van and we're walking, like I said, through like four inches of water just taking our grass, our tent, our banners, our tables, chairs, everything through this water and of course you could assume our shoes and socks got very wet, like practically ruined it's the worst feeling of all time.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, and it's cold, like that was the worst. It was just like cold feet, wet, I'm carrying heavy grass and tables and all this. This is our first event. It was supposed to be so cool and no, it just went south fast and, yeah, that was a nice, left a sour taste in our mouth just because we're like, wow, okay, we kind of agreed, right there, we're never doing another event in the rain. Yeah, agreed, right there, we're never doing another event in the rain. Yeah, like, let's try to avoid outdoor events as much as we can in the springtime, when it's probably, you know, march. It always rained. This wasn't. This one was in march. So, yeah, that was, oh my gosh, I do not want to live that again. I actually ended up doing another event. It was barks and brews in san diego, and it rained there too, and like months later and I was just like I didn't think I'd be back in a situation like this was it like full-on, pouring like before?
Speaker 2I'm sure the circumstances were a little better, but a little bit, but it was full-on pouring and like cold, cold rain. So it was it. Just it was horrible, it was horrible. So, yeah, no, ecolux, you guys were great, but no, never again I will not do an event in the rain. And it was, it was miserable. So that was my first marketing experience, like big you know, yeah, super, super fun. Um, yeah, our first event. So obviously any event past that we were just like hesitant, but most of our events have worked out since then and stuff and a lot of sunlight and in the day we've been very cautious about that, but you've gotten lucky.
Speaker 2Yes, we have yeah, so um and we're. I think we're past the rainy season now. You never know. Sometimes in june here in southern california we get a occasional it has been gloomy.
Speaker 3Yes, yeah thunderstorms too.
Speaker 2That's what happens in the in the summer, but we're good, we should be fine.
Speaker 3No more wet socks please god, the next event we're doing is pups in the park at dodger stadium so that one should be good, last year was gloomy because it was in june again.
Speaker 2I remember it was, right, a very gloomy day, but sun came out in the afternoon. But, yes, so pups in the park, dodger stadium um, we will be providing our grass for all the pups that do attend. 700 dogs are attending, um, sadly, it is sold out already. So if you are interested in going, um, maybe you could just buy a ticket just to see all the dogs. You won't be able to bring your dog in, you need a special ticket package for that. But, um, yeah, super cool, it'll be our second year doing it and we're we're stoked, we're stoked for that. But let's just pray. No rain, let's hope. Obviously, the game wouldn't have it happen if it rained too, so, um, that would be a bummer turn into a long day. Rain delay for fresh patch.
Speaker 3Rain delay for the dodgers but it's like a double negative.
Speaker 2Yeah, it is, yeah and then you're just pissing me off now because now I'm in an event in the rain again. So, um, yeah, no, but that is one of our next events. We're also going to be um cat con in august. So all you cat listeners, cat owner listeners um, we got some fun stuff coming for fresh patch in the cat department and we will be at cat con in pasadena yes august first weekend in august so that is an indoor event. Cool, no rain, august too, so we probably won't see any rain at all.
Speaker 2But yeah, that's an indoor one, so yeah, just kind of for all the viewers. If you are local to the LA area, that's some of our more recent events coming up. So yeah, no bad experiences there, absolutely.
Upcoming Fresh Patch Events
Speaker 3Cool. So for this next story we're bringing it back to the warehouse for a second. Okay, for those of you who have seen, like some of our recent like videos of our warehouse and how it's operated, like it's gotten super streamlined and efficient and everything just works smoothly. But it was not always like that, you were telling me, before we had taping machines, we used to use strapping machines. Yes, and that was a huge pain in the you-know-what. Yes, it was.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 2So, like Gabe said, yeah, we've become way more efficient now. We've worked. I mean, I worked with our operation director of operations, James, like when I was in the warehouse and we tried to streamline as much as possible. And back in the day, so this is 2016. Yeah, we didn didn't. So we hand tape everything now it was like a tape gun.
Speaker 2But, um, back in the day, we had, uh, strappers. So, um, god, these things sucked. So they, you can only go as fast as the strapper and we'd have to. So the machine pretty much shoots out the the strap and then you stick it back in the other side and it like goes down on the box, tightens up, right, so you can only go as fast as that. And Mondays is our biggest day. A lot of our subscriptions line up on Mondays so, um, a big chunk of our orders will go out, so it sucks. We have over a thousand orders on Mondays and when you can only go as fast as a machine, it really takes a lot of time.
Warehouse Strapping Machine Struggles
Speaker 2So, back in the day, yeah, I was working like Mondays were always a 12 hour day. I'd be seven to seven every Monday, like no doubt about it, and sometimes I'd be seven to eight. Like it just depends like what, like you know what, this, what, what happened during the day and stuff, but, like I said, um, different type of grass sometimes and it's very hard to maneuver and get into our boxes and stuff. But yeah, the straps were, oh my gosh, that was a pain, um, and it would suck, cause, like now we get everything pre pre-cut and back in the day I would cut everything and so I could cut lightning fast. You know, I could cut eight at a time. Make, yeah, make. Let's see, eight at a time would be eight times three. So 24 standards like one stack, like in one, cut right, so I could knock out everything. But then the poor strapper would just be sitting there having to like wait, and I'm just watching the grass stack up.
Speaker 2Yeah, oh yeah I mean, the box is like you see, you know how it is, out in the warehouse, where they they stack them and then grab one to tape, like that's. It's been that same process since 2016. Like, those tables are actually the exact same tables that were next to the strappers and stuff. So, um, yeah, that was an adventure. We actually did get a machine. I didn't mention this to you guys, but, uh, we did get a machine that someone built for us. I think it was fedex that built it for us but, um, it was like a um air compressor activated tape machine and it just taped the box like this. I could just put an l of tape, right?
Speaker 2yeah, you get what I'm saying so like a full, yeah, so now we do the full strip all the way up and around this one or just, and then, like you, would just do like all four corners pretty much, and that thing was beautiful. Oh my gosh, like the best tape machine. It was stronger tape than we have now. It was great. But there was so much maintenance with those machines. Like it was a dang rocket dude. Like I pulled out the instruction manual and there's so many like tubes and there's water, like obviously the air compressor then creates water, so then you've got to clean the tubes out. It was just a mess.
Speaker 3You need an engineering degree to understand.
Speaker 2No straight up, yeah, and we, we didn't even get people like maintenance people in here and they're like I don't know what this thing is complicated, you know. So we can, though sadly, I wish we could have them still. I mean, it would probably even speed them up even more. But, um, and it did make our boxes look cleaner too actually wasn't on the top, it was on the bottom, so you would get your package with like out any tape on it, which was really cool so yeah, beautiful I know, I know from a marketing perspective, adrian is smiling in the behind the scenes right now because, yes, we do send a lot of pr packages and you know whatever and stuff.
Speaker 2but maybe I bring that up on our product development team meetings because those things are nice and as long as we just get someone to maintain it, we're, we're good. So but yeah, that was a, that was a strapping adventure in the, in the warehouse, and we've come a long way from that. We're much more efficient by just hand taping and and stuff.
Speaker 3So thank God, yeah, I know Right Cool, so let's, let's keep it in the warehouse for this next one.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 3This is a fun one one. Um, you've told us so many stories about this, but I'm excited to hear, like you know, the full kind of how it worked. But you, you guys, used to do something called warehouse olympics, so tell me a little bit more about that yeah.
Speaker 2So with a lot of orders, like I said, we have a thousand orders and it becomes tedious. We're just taping the box, you know, and cutting the grass, putting the box. So, to make use of our time, we kind of started competitions between each other, so like who can tape a box the fastest, who can tape the whole pallet the fastest, who can oh, that's what I didn't mention before the saran wrap, who can saran wrap a pallet the fastest? And stuff, who can cut? How many pieces can you cut at once?
Speaker 2So, yeah, we it was just friendly competition at first and we're like, dude, we should actually like make something of this like fresh patch olympics, like how efficient and fast can we be at getting all this done? Like another one was we put our xl boxes on a table, like 30 at a time, and then just roll and drop in, and that one too. It's like how fast can you expedite them, tape them, get them on a pallet? And so we actually wanted to try it within the warehouse. I did make a flyer for everyone to sign up with some incentives, so maybe we bring that again, bring some content to all the viewers.
Speaker 3That's what I'm saying. Like, if we do that again, we're definitely gonna get some footage.
Speaker 2Clip it up real nice, nice and the biggest thing I will say for all you listeners is it was all about quality too. You couldn't just rush it and have a bad tape job, or you know, the palette's going to fall over, or something Like. We're looking for quality too, because there's still orders going out, so we've got to stay on the quality aspect. So you've got to be as efficient as possible with maintaining full quality. And that's what struggled with some people. They just went in there and I was like no, you've got to take all that tape off now and redo them. These aren't trial runs, these are actual orders. But your orders are safe, don't worry, they're in good hands out there.
Speaker 2We've said in past episodes we take it very seriously we take it very seriously out there and, like gabe said at the beginning of that, quite like we become very efficient in the warehouse and everything is very streamlined now and orders go out daily pristine. So, um, yeah, shout out. The warehouse crew shout out.
Speaker 3I'm assuming you, you're, you won a couple gold medals. Oh yeah, oh no, I was yeah, nobody could beat me.
Speaker 2I could still go out there and probably beat more than half those guys. No offense to the warehouse guys.
Speaker 3I think fairness. You know you're a judge now yes, oh, 100%.
Speaker 2I have to be up on the mezzanine like watching over everybody with a whistle too. Dq, dq. Come out with yellow and red cards. Like it just turned into a soccer match run up to them. Yellow card yeah quality's not there. That would be. That'd be really funny. That'd be some good content.
Speaker 2But yeah, no I'd, but I could totally go out there, and even now some of the new guys it's funny like I'll go out there and they don't know that I used to be in the warehouse and stuff. So like I'll just go out there and like we always called it too, like if you have a stack of boxes and I need to come take some for marketing or we need a special order or something, it's like we'd always, you know, you'd be folding your stack of boxes and you come up and it's like you take some off somebody's stack and it's like sorry tax day, gotta pay your taxes and so now I feel bad because I would take people's taxes.
Speaker 2I'm like I'll just fold the box right. And so the new guys, like I've noticed, they like watch me and I'm just like fold it up real quick and they're just like who is this guy?
Speaker 2like you know, so yeah, no, I still got it. I could go out there there Even. It was funny. Jimmy V was texting me the other day because we got a lot of orders for some product and stuff and he was like, dang, we're like shorthanded. Today Some guys, you know called out sick and whatnot. And I was I think I was working from home that day and I was just like, hey man, he's like, yeah, it was like two o'clock and he's like, yeah, I don't know if we're gonna finish. I was like dude, it's two o'clock, you got at least. I was like I know what time the fedex truck comes, I know what time on track leaves. I was like you're chilling. I was like turn the music up and get cracking. And he was like. He was like do you think it's time? You can maybe take your jersey out of the rafters and come help us. And I was like, dude, I could. I would definitely finish it all, but I'm not coming. It's all on you guys now. But no, I love my warehouse guys.
Speaker 3Oh they're amazing. They're amazing. They got done right. They finished up. Oh, they finished yeah no, all the orders.
Speaker 2Like I said, all the orders get out there, so um with quality too, even though it's rushed it is quality, always quality um, yeah, that's just a funny thing. But yeah, no, I should. Honestly, I kind of been wanting to go back out in the warehouse and make a stack just to see how long, because my record was seven minutes and like 15 seconds for 25 boxes.
Speaker 2It's not bad, it's not bad once you get out there you're gonna be like oh wow, actually this does. Yeah, you know it might sound like a long time, but you you've got to fold top and bottom, put them together. It's like stacking cups.
Speaker 2Yeah, exactly, yeah, pretty much, and then the stack has to be perfect because those will fall and then you've got to pick it all up. So, yeah, maybe that's a video we do, I think. So let's put our marketing director back in his old position I like it and see how he does yeah, and see how he does. How efficient can he be?
Fresh Patch Warehouse Olympics
Speaker 3And you'll see, does he still? He claims to still, yeah.
Speaker 2That's another one too, I'll add on before we get really carried away. But Akeem, like two months ago I think it was like I went out there and I was like I need a large. And he was like, oh, we only got the XLs right now, like we're going gonna have to cut it. And I was like, okay, no problem. And he's like he looks at me with like you know, like the side I look, he's like let's test you out. Do you still got it?
Speaker 2Because on our cutting table at the large, like you had to cut it perfectly down, we didn't have like so our standards have slits that the sock and just like go into. And so for this one, when the large became a product, a new product, we didn't have that cut out on the table. So we had to make do. And so we just measured at first and it's like, okay, we're going to cut right here every time and so you have an eye for it, like there's marks on it, but like if you're off by a little bit, like it's, it's, you're going. And I was just like, dude, don't deny me, come on, why would you test me? And he's like no, he's like you're the guru. Are you still the guru. Yeah, let's see, I cut that thing. No slit Perfect. He put them in two boxes. He started freaking out.
Speaker 2He's like ahsh Never lost it Easy work, easy work, easy day, you know. So no, I think I should definitely go out there again. Yeah, a little morale boost. Give me an hour, boys. Give me an hour. There you go, they'll be surprised.
Speaker 3Absolutely Awesome. So we got one more crazy story for you. We did touch on this last week in our episode with Jason he kind of talked about it from his perspective, but you had a pretty crazy perspective as well. So at a certain point we had a Georgia warehouse where we were like sending grass out of and stuff and you guys made a trip out there. Yep, you actually drove out there. I did so. Tell me more about that, oh yeah, how was that?
Speaker 2This is my best memory. It has to be. It'll deliver me forever. But so, yeah, we opened a warehouse in Georgia no longer in operation now but we had to get product out there, right, and we didn't want to ship it. We have big pallets of all our boxes and stuff and it's just like we can't ship it. No-transcript the time. How can I pretty much mirror this to georgia, right, so I gotta get out there. So it's like, okay, how about we just put me in a 26 foot box truck, awesome, load everything up and I'm gonna drive all the way to georgia?
Speaker 2okay great I said I'm down like this sounds kind of fun, right, you know, and I want to see this new warehouse and everything. So, uh, I got one of my co-workers, rafa I'm gonna definitely tell you to watch this episode so you hear this story. But, um, yeah, shout out, rafa. He was my, uh, co-pilot. So starts out. We started here, oxnard, california, and I had set up a route from we're going to stop in El Paso and then the next night it was going to take us three days. So El Paso to Baton Rouge, louisiana, to Adel, georgia, and I was like this is great. It was like 12, 10, 12 hour drives each day, getting us there within like 30 hours. It said, if you just did it straight, right.
Speaker 2So first day I'm like, okay, I'll drive first he. The other thing too he was not comfortable driving a box truck, like he had never driven a truck that big. Right, and I had. I've had experience driving trucks that big. So I was fine. And cross country, no, but locally, yes. So I was like, okay, like I got it.
Speaker 2And so I drove all the way to Phoenix first day we had the Phoenix about five, maybe five o'clock in the evening and I'm like all right, man, you ready to switch, like we got I think it was like six hours to El Paso or something like that. And he's like yeah, man, I got it, I got it, okay. So sun setting now for context, we get on the road about 30 minutes, sun sets. I'm trying to take a nap, I was just driving all day and I'm over in the passenger seat cuddling up and then Rafa goes hey, like Tassie's, hey, andrew, uh, yeah, I can't drive at night. And I was like, and he's also freaking out too, he's also freaking out because the the box truck gets windy. Um, we were going through New Mexico, super windy, like literally passing signs like hey, might be like 100 mile an hour wind, you know, oh yeah. And I was just like, oh God, like this, is not it?
Speaker 3Like we're in a very tall truck Driving for the first time at night, like it's a little you know, yeah, in a foreign truck Like you've never driven anything that big.
Speaker 2So I was just like, oh my gosh. So got a little angry at him. I was like I know you were scared to drive, but I could have said you drive first. But whatever, I was like, pull over, I'll take it over.
Cross-Country Box Truck Adventure
Speaker 2So I ended up driving from California to El Paso, texas. It ended up taking us 19 hours that first day because we had to make some stops and everything and switch and the truck only goes 65 miles an hour or two. So we had a governor on it so I could only go up to 65. So I was tapped and it took us 19 hours. Okay, great, el Paso, just get a hotel spend the night. We're bright and early the next day. We've got to get to Baton Rouge. Okay, I put it in the maps El Paso to Baton Rouge nine, nine hours of the nine and a half hours. I was like beautiful, doable, 10 hours less than what I did yesterday. Like it's going to be great, it'll get us there at a reasonable time. I can rest, get checked into the hotel, everything. No, no, no, no, no, no, I was poorly mistaken.
Speaker 2Ok, so MAPS, goes off speed limit and, like I just said, the truck could only go 65 miles an hour. So, as we're going through Texas Texas is massive, right, this is my first time driving being to Texas but also driving through it and I'm going from tip to tip right, and so we get on. And the speed limit, if you are from Texas, unless you know, you guys got very high speed limits there, which is awesome. Wish we had that here in California. But it was 80 miles an hour for most of the highway, right, and I can only go 65. So maps bases everything off speed limits.
Speaker 2So I'm cruising cruise control on 65, tapped, and I'm looking down at the maps to check progress like every 20 minutes, and I'm like that arrival time keeps going up by like five minutes every 20 minutes. Like what's going on here? Like did it lie to me? And then I tell rafa, I'm like hey, look it up. I'm like does maps go off speed limit? And he looks up, he's like yeah, it does. And I was like, oh, we are cooked, we're cooked. I mean, people are like 80 mile an hour is the speed limit. People are going 100, yeah, and just zooming past you're in the slow lane oh dude, dude, I was so pissed, I was just sitting there like shaking.
Speaker 2I was like people mobbing, I'm like flipping them off you know, like so jealous of them. But yeah, and then Texas. I mean, like I said, if you're from Texas and have ever driven El Paso to Houston, it is like you're going in circles, like there's nothing out there. It looks like the world just drops off. I'm used to being here with the coast, mountains, something to look at and there's just nothing.
Speaker 2And I swear I saw the same rock 20 times. I was like I passed this rock already. I swear I'm not tripping you start counting the mile markers.
Speaker 1Yeah, literally, it actually didn't help because, it just makes it go slower, makes it go so much yeah, there's so much roadkill.
Speaker 2In texas too, there's so much road, I saw every animal armadillos and stuff armadillos.
Speaker 2I saw a ram like a bighorn, sheep saw mountain lion, I saw dude. There was so many things. Just it was cool and that's all I had for my entertainment some music and looking at roadkill. You suck, but anyways, long story short. Yes, so MAPS goes off speed limit.
Speaker 2So instead of the nine-hour drive we had, it ended up being a 16-hour drive and we were supposed to get to Baton Rouge and we did not get to Baton Rouge. I was like it's going to be another six hours to Baton Rouge. This is going to be a 22-hour day. It's going to be another six hours to Baton Rouge. This is going to be a 22-hour day. No, so I got a hotel in Houston.
Speaker 2That was chaos too, because I got a downtown hotel. Oh jeez, just not thinking that I'm in a giant 26-foot moving truck and we get down there. I'm like there's nowhere for me to park and downtown Houston isn't all that great and there was a lot of to park and downtown houston isn't all that great and there was a lot of, you know, homeless people and stuff and like not, this not the just not the best place to leave a truck full of inventory and stuff. We didn't have a lock on it and I was just like you know what? I'm gonna bite the bullet here and call the hotel like we can't refund you. I was like I, I don't care. So we found a hotel on the outskirts of Houston, made it easier. They had parking for our truck and everything. I was like OK, just get me to bed, I'm done with this day. So we finished that second day and then the next day we got to Georgia from Houston and that one was from.
Speaker 1Houston.
Speaker 2Yeah, so through Louisiana, through Mississippi, alabama, into Florida and then up from Florida. That is a drive. Yeah, that one was bad. That one was bad, that was another. Over 15 hours. I don't know how we got there in a reasonable time. We got there at our deadline. Well, kind of. We got there really late. We were supposed to be there in the afternoon, but our first day of work to do everything was like the next day, so it was fine, but, yeah, that was brutal, wouldn't do again I would not do it again, okay, no, no, no, we've teased the idea and I was just like you.
Speaker 2Put me on a flight like we are. We are I'll go out there, but I'm getting on a flight shout out to truck drivers man yeah 100.
Speaker 2I, that's every truck stop we went to. I was just like I would get out and fuel up and stuff. And I was. I would just look around and be like, wow, I have so much more, like I already had respect for them and stuff. But like, yeah, I have, I'm living their lives now and like I have so much respect for truck drivers and their long routes and getting us our goods and shout out FedEx on track that gets fresh patch products straight up to our customers too. Like you guys are insane. I mean I know that's more less contracted work, like some of these independent you know truck drivers and stuff that I was seeing and but man, but at least those guys have sleeper trucks.
Speaker 3True, I'm sure that I had a bench. Yeah, you want to pull off, take a nap really quick.
Speaker 2You have the ability, exactly and I was like I don't have that ability and my co-pilot's sleeping. He's scared to drive the truck. I'm forced to drive this thing, and what sucked too. And a lot of people have asked me this is the company we went with, that we rented from was usually you can just drop the truck, Okay, usually you can just drop the truck, Okay, our load's done. Drop the truck and like, fly back. No, no, no, no, no. Not with this company. You got to bring the truck back. All their trucks are designated to the certain hub it's in. They can't get transferred to another state or anything. So I had to drive back.
Speaker 3That sounds like so much fun.
Speaker 2It was a blast man Doing everything all over again and I rerouted a little better this time, like we stopped in Arizona and it was kind of a little easier for some reason, on the way back.
Speaker 3I feel like the way back's always.
Speaker 2on road trips, the way back's always better, yeah, but I was still pounding my head in that steering wheel going through Texas. Oh my gosh, I was just sitting there like this, just banging my head on the steering wheel and that sucked too, because there, like, we had a load in there so it made it a little heavier, and stuff On the way back it was empty, so we were like swaying left and right. Yeah, it was brutal. One more thing too Louisiana. Louisiana sucked because great state, beautiful, beautiful. It was like all Because great state, Beautiful, beautiful. It was like all wet, like you know, like really cool bridges and stuff were passing, but for most of the state all the highways were under construction and so there was no emergency lanes, like everything was barricaded and it was a two-lane highway and so it was like semi-truck row, like it was just like that was the commute, it was it's the 10. So, um, dude, I'm talking like mirrors are like this close to each other, touching like you're just going for a box for four hours.
Speaker 2Dude, oh my gosh, it was the most nerve-wracking thing I've ever. Like one little, one little pothole or wind shift or something like you would have knocked. It was crazy, and that gave me even more respect for truck drivers. So I'm like, dude, their conditions they have to drive in. Sometimes it's crazy. I'm like, yeah, I was so proud of myself, though.
Speaker 2Yeah I think I got through it and I was like that is yeah, even my parents, like my dad, he's like, gee, he's like every time, like I think about that, he's like it's actually kind of incredible that you like did that. And I was like, yeah, no, guys do that every day. But like, yeah, I'm add another thing to my resume I guess I could do that.
Speaker 3Yeah, like I said, never again, never again dang well. That is definitely qualifies as a crazy story. Yes, I know I kind of went on a rant there, but there's a lot of details to that story.
Speaker 2You know, road trip across the country.
Speaker 3Yeah, so for those of you who are thinking about doing a road trip across the country? Now you have.
Speaker 2Now you have some, uh, some inside info on that don't do it in a box, just make sure you don't have a governor like. At least you can go faster than 65 miles an hour. You'd be as long as you can go 80 through texas.
Speaker 3You're fine and find a good co-pilot.
Speaker 2Yes, yeah, I feel like that's yeah, so I love you, rafa, but that was brutal man yeah, no, that was great. So yeah, that's. I mean, I have plenty of stories, we could go on yeah, maybe we're probably out of time already now, but, um, yeah, maybe a part two. I could go on. We were brainstorming before we hopped on too, but yeah, that that's my some of my crazy stories here. I've been through a lot, absolutely.
Speaker 3Yeah, no, that's, that's super fun. Well, thank you for for sharing. Yeah, of course, it's been cool to hear Cause like I heard like kind of bits and pieces but like to hear the whole story is yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2And then there's some other stories in there too, like just being in Georgia and stuff, but yeah that's that's for part two, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3Awesome guys. Well, hey, thank you so much for for sticking with us today. I want to remind you guys, real quick, smash the like button, throw us a subscribe, uh. Whatever platform you're listening on, uh, give us a follow. We'll be here every week Um and week um, and we're really excited to to be here and present this stuff to you guys.
Speaker 2And then don't forget social media too.
Speaker 3Yes, follow us on social media instagram, facebook, tiktok. Am I forgetting any?
Closing Thoughts and Social Media
Speaker 2x, formerly known as twitter. That too, pinterest reddit. We're on it all. Snapchat yeah, we got it all at fresh patch. You can find us, so tune in and thank you guys for supporting this podcast. We really appreciate it and tune in for the next episodes.
Speaker 3Absolutely. Thank you guys.
Speaker 2Thanks guys.
Speaker 1Thanks for listening to the Potty Time Podcast brought to you by Fresh Patch. We hope you enjoyed the show. Give us a like or a follow, or shop all of our real grass supplies at freshpatchcom.
