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The Breakroom is a show hosted by the three cofounders of Conversion Factory, the marketing agency at the forefront of SaaS growth. Tune into the Factory Floor, our other show, to stay up to date with the changing landscape of the marketing world.
On the Break Room, we just like to chill out and tell stories. Whether you're on your way to work, just passing the time, or stuck somewhere with nothing but an internet connection, tune in. We're here for you, a couple of dudes hanging out.
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Nick Loudon (00:00)
Okay, all right, let's do it.
Good afternoon or morning, depending on when you're listening. Welcome to the break room. We're gonna talk about something beautiful today, something horrific. I am joined by my homies here. Homie number one, Zach Stevens. Homie number one B, Corey Haines Corey Ulysses Haines.
Zach Stevens (00:24)
I'm number one.
Nick Loudon (00:32)
And the question for today, or not the question, the prompt is this. I wanna know your worst travel story. like, ⁓ we had this great trip planned and it was just like absolutely terrible, disgusting, awful because of these things that happened or ⁓ just like generally like, I traveling for work and then I got sick and the world ended, that kind of thing. That's what I'm looking for. So.
Does anyone have like they're eager to share because it's that bad or can I pick who starts?
Zach Stevens (01:07)
guess you could pick, mine's not terrible.
Nick Loudon (01:09)
I feel like Corey travels a lot, so let's go with Corey.
Corey Haines (01:12)
⁓ I might, I feel like I actually have one that's worse than either of these. I'll tell two quickly because one is super quick, so I'm not going to go into detail, but I might think of another one as I go. But the first one was once upon a time on a honeymoon when I was coming back from a honeymoon, I was flying back through Dallas, Fort Worth, and our connection flight got canceled.
Zach Stevens (01:12)
Good choice.
Nick Loudon (01:41)
you
Corey Haines (01:42)
And there was no other flights until like 12 hours later. And this flight was at like 6 PM. And so there was this huge line and it was like all these people trying to get rebooked and they're giving credits and, you, know, you can connect over here. They're going to fly over to Colorado and then in San Diego and so on and so forth. And we kind of like were some of the last ones to get in the line. And so by the time they got to us, they were like, there's no more flights.
Like you're, we can rebook you out of another flight here, but it's not going to be until I think it was like 7 a.m. the next morning. And it was like 7 p.m. So it was like a long time. And, ⁓ and they were like, you know, we could give you, a credit for a, a stay at a hotel, but the nearest hotel is an hour and a half away. And, ⁓ and like it doesn't leave until like 9 p.m.
So like you would get there at like 10 and 30 and then you'd have to like kind of get up at like four if you want to. Yeah, and we were like, okay, well like what are you suggesting then? They're like, well, we have some cots. And I was like, huh? I'm like, yeah, we have cots and blankets and a little tiny pillow if you want it. So we were like, okay, whatever. Let's just do that. So we went and tried to find a quiet spot in the terminal and
Zach Stevens (02:46)
for.
Nick Loudon (02:53)
No.
Corey Haines (03:10)
I mean, you I'm a larger guy. Like I, I tried to fit on the cot. I do not fit on a cot at all. Like I can sleep on a twin bed kind of that. That's like the smallest I can go. Otherwise it just starts to become like a game of, ⁓ you know, Tetris with my body.
Nick Loudon (03:14)
Big boy.
Zach Stevens (03:29)
Which appendage
is going to fall off.
Nick Loudon (03:33)
Ha
Corey Haines (03:33)
Yeah,
like it was basically like if my head was on the cot, then like the whole bottom half of my leg, like my knee down was hanging off and then, you know, like vice versa, then my head would be hanging off and there was no way. And then like both of my shoulders couldn't fit across. So was trying to go on my side, but then with my knees hanging off, it was just like my feet were dragging me down. So anyways, and then like, I think we finally fell asleep at like one in the morning.
And then like two in the morning, the cleaning crew came in and they didn't care at all. Do they didn't give an F. This guy came in with this like noisy nineties vacuum. Like right by my head for literally like half an hour. And so then I just woke up and we went and got like breakfast and then got in our way. ⁓ that was a long time ago though. And it really wasn't that bad. I'll tell you one more story really quickly. And that is that, ⁓ just recently,
Nick Loudon (04:08)
You
You
Corey Haines (04:31)
in October, I was coming from micro-conf Europe in Croatia and Dubrovnik. And then I had a couple of days in between that one and SaaS stock Europe, I think in London, I want to say one of those, was in between two conferences. So was like, you know what? I'm going to go to my dream destination and I'm going to go to Switzerland in between just for a couple of days. It's like not that far from Croatia to Switzerland.
So I had a direct flight from Dubrovnik to Zurich and I was going to be there in like an hour and a half. Well, okay. You show up to the airport in Dubrovnik. it's it's 20 minutes delayed. it's 20 more minutes delayed. it's 20 more minutes delayed. And then we get the notification over the PA that the flight's been canceled and to come to the front desk to get rebooked. So they come to the front desk and you know, Dubrovnik is a tiny, tiny little airport. And so they're like,
Nick Loudon (05:05)
you
you
Corey Haines (05:29)
Yep, we have no more flights to Switzerland like this week. Like we can rebook you to, uh, to Paris and then connect from Paris to Switzerland. Um, but like it doesn't leave for a couple more hours and you'd connect and it's kind of a tight connection, but you'd get into Switzerland at like 11 PM. I was like, okay, that's fine. Whatever. I'll just make it work. So I wait around the airport for another like three hours doing absolutely nothing.
getting the flight to Paris wasn't that bad. I get to Paris and I get off and I think I get out at like gate 56, I want to say in the terminal. And I look at my next ticket to get to Zurich and it says gate 57 and it's like an hour later. So I was like, sweet. It's like right next door. So I look over and it's the same airline. So I'm like, this makes sense. I'll just wait here until I see the little screen change to like verify that this is actually my flight. And then
You know, I'll just watch for that and then I can chill out and wait for the boarding whatever So I go get some food I go back I'm waiting around looking at the screen and then I see the screen change and it's not my flight and so I walk up to the little guests or to the flight attendant and I'm like, hey, here's my ticket I thought that this it says gate 57 and As she says, oh no, sir. This is gate 57 terminal 6. You need to be a good terminal 1
And I'm like, okay. Like where's terminal one? And she's like, sir, you have to get on a bus and you go around the whatever. Yeah. So I was like, ⁓ well my flight leaves in 20 minutes. And she was like, ⁓ sir. Like you, like, yeah. She's like, you better go. She's like, you, you, you have to run. And so I started running and then I go to where the little bus stop is. And then I wait for like 10 minutes.
Zach Stevens (06:58)
Whoops.
Nick Loudon (07:05)
What?
Stop calling me sir
Corey Haines (07:26)
a bus comes and there's like five or six terminals in Paris and there's only one, like they go clockwise around and I'm like in, my term I need to get to is on the opposite end of the route. And so it's like a 25 minute, ⁓ bus ride. And then I get to that terminal and dude, it's a maze. Like anyone who's listening, who's been through Paris knows, knows this, but it's like, it's very old.
and it literally looks like a giant stadium. And it's crazy because it'll be like three floors and the entrance to each one of the different gates will be up this like long escalator on a like a random area. There's no like signs that say like, this is exactly where we get here. It's just sort of like, uh, oh my gosh, it's so hard to explain, but it's like a big bowl and you're always going across the bowl to different levels to get to different gates. So anyways, I run the entire time.
I have to go through like three different escalators. I don't even know if I'm going the right way. I have to go through security again for that terminal. I'm telling them like, dude, my flight is leaving right now. Like, please let me through. They let me through. I have water in my water bottle because I refilled it. I have to go back and empty it, go through the security again. I finally get to the gate and they're like, Oh, we get closed two minutes ago. Like you just missed it. And, uh, so
Nick Loudon (08:52)
Dude.
Corey Haines (08:56)
Okay, I'm gonna try to wrap this up because it's getting way too long. But so then I'm like, so what do I do? And they're like, you have to go downstairs and like get it rebooked somewhere. Like, where do I go? She's like, oh, back to her. She's like, you go to terminal six, the one that I was just at. So I go back there. I get to the other, um, I go like up a floor where all the, the stations are for all the airlines. I look at my watch and it's like 8:05 I want to say something like that.
Nick Loudon (09:10)
Six. Back to the...
Corey Haines (09:27)
And there's no one working at the airline stations at all. And, and, so I asked, there's like one person at like the little info desk and I'm like, Hey, I'm look, I need to get rebooked on Croatia airlines. ⁓ I got rebooked a couple of times and yada, yada, yada. Where, where is that? He's like, we don't have a Croatia airlines. I was like, okay, well what about the flight that I got rebooked through? I forget what it was. It might've been like British airways or something. And he was like, they're, they're down there.
but they just closed. They close at 8 PM. I'm like, okay. So then I, I'm like, I'm like, what do I do? Cause I need to get rebooked to make this, you know, I have an Airbnb for tonight and that it does whole schedule. He's like, you should call them. So I call them. Guess what time they stopped taking calls. 8 PM. So I look around and I, and I go to another terminal to try to find another place where I can book a ticket.
Nick Loudon (10:15)
What's the point?
Corey Haines (10:26)
there's literally not a single soul who can sell me a ticket on any airplane anywhere. And it's like 8 15 PM on like a Saturday night. You know what I mean? And so I just bought a new ticket on my phone for like 6 AM the next morning. I took an Uber to a hotel. I slept there for like four hours and then I booked my butt back to the airport. And then I realized that I didn't have my checked bag.
The whole time my checked bag, you know went through Dubrovnik and went through Croatia Airlines and then I went to Paris and I missed my flight and I kind of just forgot about it because of all the chaos of trying to figure out where I was gonna go and so I look because I put air tags in all my suitcases because of all these nightmares before and I see
Nick Loudon (11:18)
It's back in Croatia.
Corey Haines (11:22)
I'm no, I'm expecting it to be in Croatia
or in Switzerland, but it's actually in the Paris airport. So I get to the airport and I'm like a little bit early, but not super early. And it's a mad house. Like there's literally a million people there and it's, there's like huge lines and every single terminal, every security line. And, but I see my air tag that it's at a specific terminal. And so I go in there, I have to wait like an hour to get someone to help me get my bag.
Nick Loudon (11:29)
I gotta find my bag.
Corey Haines (11:51)
I get my bag and then I do the same thing. I have to run to make my flight and then do the whole thing. I'm getting on the bus, go to the other terminal, da da da. I made it, but it was a hell of a journey.
Nick Loudon (12:05)
⁓
Zach Stevens (12:05)
don't even want to tell mine.
Corey Haines (12:07)
(travel horror story)
I feel it was not even that bad. I've heard, I've heard people with way worse stories.
Zach Stevens (12:13)
The... just tell mine, it's gonna be 30 seconds. What happened was, Going to the DC trip when I was 14 years old, we were stuck hovering around the airport, landing in Virginia for like an hour and a half. And I didn't know this because this was my first time being on a plane as not a young child. But I get really bad motion sickness on ascension and descension. So I...
Was so sick, like, cause they're just turning and turning and turning all over the airport, like up above the airport. So that's it. I found out I get motion sickness and was in motion sickness hell for an hour. Now Corey says a hundred percent worse. Do you have something that tops it Nick?
Corey Haines (12:58)
Okay that actually isn't that bad.
Nick Loudon (12:59)
Yeah, Corey's is worse, I And much longer Yeah,
no, definitely not just it's a story of my foolishness. I suppose I was invited to a bachelor party in Phoenix, Arizona, which is a five-hour drive five and a half hours from San Diego so
I go, everything's great, great time. Coming back, I drove, by the way. And so on the way back, I'm driving and I'm like, if you don't know this drive, like there's basically like there's a couple checkpoints. So like you just stop at these like two, three places and fill up and get gas and you know, you'll make it home. ⁓ And there was one where it was like, I could have stopped, but I didn't because
I was like pretty close to the next spot and the next spot had like more gas stations and cheaper gas and I am cheap. So I was like, I'll just see what happens. And the next section right before the town, before Yuma is like this big mountain pass section. So it's all these like hills and stuff. And it's like just coming into the summer, it's like May maybe. So it's really hot where we are. It's like a hundred degrees, 105 degrees. And we're driving through.
or I'm driving through alone, car full of random stuff that I took to the bachelor party. And ⁓ I'm going up this hill. have like, my thing tells me I have like 18 miles left. And I'm like, I'm gonna make it no problem. It's like five miles. It's great. I start going up this hill and my car just like, the incline must have made it like the gas tank must need like a certain like gravitational, know, level to like pull the gas into the fuel line, something.
Corey Haines (14:47)
Mmm. Mm-hmm.
Zach Stevens (14:49)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Loudon (14:52)
flux capacitor. So I'm going up and it's sputtering out and I'm like, ⁓ shoot, shoot, shoot. So I pull over and it's like, you know, the freeways out here, like they're 80 miles per hour. You can drive as fast as you want kind of thing. ⁓ So I'm on the side of the road. I have no gas. I have very little service. So I've got my car. I climb up this hill, which is like, I'm in this desert mountain pass. It's like this valley. So I like climbed up this hill that had like a little plateau on it and like walked maybe like
200 feet and had a better signal called AAA. AAA is coming. Okay, sounds great. The guy gets here with his truck and his gas can and all that stuff. I'm like, okay, I think I'm just out of gas. This is what it is. But I drive a Ford Focus. And if you don't know, the newer Ford Focuses have a self-closing gas cap, which basically means it's not like you twist it and open it and then you put the gas thing in. It's like it closes and you just push the...
the thing in, you push the pump in and it like opens it based on how it's all built. You can't just stick a regular gas can into it. It like won't open. Yeah. You only pumps and then the funnel that comes with your car. I bought my car used. I didn't have the funnel. So there's no funnel. The gas can is like won't go in. I'm like, I have gas. I have a car that's out of gas and I can't get it in.
Corey Haines (15:52)
⁓
What?
Zach Stevens (16:03)
Hmm.
Nick Loudon (16:19)
So basically I convinced the guy to let me use some screwdrivers he had to pry it open. He was like, I won't do this to your car, I can't. You can do it. Here's the screwdriver. And I was like, great. So I had to stick these screwdrivers in it, pull it open, and then tell him to put the gas in. And so he put it in and gave me a couple gallons. And okay, I turned my car in and it works. And then from that point on, every time I filled up my tank, would like, like sputter.
because I had like messed up the lip, like the sealant part with the thing. So I basically like ruined my whole fuel intake section for like a year. It took so long to get for people to figure out how to fix it. And I always would tell them it's cause I shoved the thing in my gas intake and you just need to fix this one piece. And they were like, no, no, no, it's the fuel line. It's so, it just so annoying. And it ruined me driving my car for over a year.
Corey Haines (17:15)
Ugh.
Nick Loudon (17:18)
And it's also just because I'm dumb and ran out of gas. And I didn't have to.
Corey Haines (17:25)
I love a ran out of gas story, because it really is so embarrassing. It still never happened to me, thank God. I would be petrified if it did, because it's like so avoidable. And then it's, yeah, that's really funny. It's just like, worse gets even worse.
Nick Loudon (17:30)
Yeah.
Zach Stevens (17:41)
Never boats. Never boats well.
Nick Loudon (17:41)
And
I was on my way home to like a birthday, family birthday gathering. So was like, you know, I had like a button-up shirt and like jeans on and I'm just sweating balls outside. It's so hot and I'm wearing a button-up and jeans. And I'm just like, what am I doing? Why am I out here? Like, why did I do this? But I think it's safe to say that Corey's is the most, Corey's, both of Corey's stories are probably worse than both of ours.
Zach Stevens (17:43)
At all.
Corey Haines (18:04)
Lesson learned.
Zach Stevens (18:11)
Agreed. But did you throw up?
Nick Loudon (18:12)
Yeah.
I didn't throw up. Yeah. you. ⁓ poor Zach. Yeah.
Zach Stevens (18:16)
Did you throw up, Corey?
Corey Haines (18:18)
No, you never said that you throw up, because that makes it pretty bad. In an airplane, that's traumatic. Yeah. Yeah.
Zach Stevens (18:21)
Hmm It sucks. It's not fun. Don't 10
out of 10 would not recommend zero stars on Yelp. Like please no throwing up on airplanes
Nick Loudon (18:31)
Yeah.
Corey Haines (18:32)
Yeah, it's best for everyone else too.
Zach Stevens (18:35)
Especially after like a can of Coke and some airline peanuts.
Nick Loudon (18:40)
⁓ God. Yum.
Yeah, great combo.
Okay, great job, gentlemen. Love the stories and we'll see you on the next episode.
Zach Stevens (18:46)
Delicious.
Nick Loudon (19:02)
Okay, you can cut that out. Yeah, keep me doing this. Yeah, all of us.
Zach Stevens (19:07)
Or don't.
Corey Haines (19:10)
That's our outro now. Doing obscene things with our hands.
Zach Stevens (19:16)
No, all of us just do this right here. Or we all go.
Corey Haines (19:20)
Yeah, exactly.