Joe Rhodes - Unmoored, Part I

Summary

Hyperfixed Podcast Summary: "Joe Rhodes - Unmoored, Part I"

Release Date: January 30, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of Hyperfixed, host Alex Goldman delves into the tumultuous journey of Joe Rhodes aboard the Villa VI Odyssey, a residential cruise ship embarking on an ambitious three-and-a-half-year voyage. This first part of a series offers an in-depth look at Joe's experiences, the myriad challenges faced by the ship and its passengers, and the broader implications of choosing such an unconventional lifestyle.

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Meet Joe Rhodes

Background and Motivation

Joe Rhodes, a 69-year-old retired journalist, shares his unconventional path leading him to the Villa VI Odyssey. Living in a van for 13 years, Joe sought mobility and the freedom to visit friends across North America without the constraints of a fixed residence. "It was absolutely the best decision I ever made," Joe reflects on his van life, highlighting the fulfillment it brought him despite its challenges (20:29).

However, after years of perpetual movement with diminishing returns and a desire for a new adventure, Joe was drawn to the concept of a residential cruise ship. Unlike traditional luxury cruises reserved for the affluent, the Villa VI Odyssey offered a more accessible alternative. Joe was intrigued by the prospect of waking up in a new location daily without the hefty financial commitment typically associated with such voyages.

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The Villa VI Odyssey Experience

Ship Overview and Initial Impressions

The Villa VI Odyssey distinguishes itself from standard cruise lines by functioning as a floating residential complex. As Joe describes, "they converted the casino into a business center because they think of this as a floating residential complex" (05:25). This transformation caters to digital nomads and retirees alike, offering amenities that support both work and leisurely living.

Accommodation and Costs

Joe resides in a modest cabin, paying $3,500 monthly, which covers comprehensive services including food, gym access, Wi-Fi, medical visits, laundry, and housekeeping. This all-inclusive rate appealed to Joe, providing a semblance of stability amidst the ship's constant movement and the allure of endless new destinations.

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Initial Setbacks and Delays

Departure Disruptions

The Villa VI Odyssey's departure was fraught with delays. Originally slated to sail on May 15th from Southampton, the ship did not set sail until October from Belfast, over four and a half months behind schedule. Joe recounts the disappointment: "We were sort of like many celebrities. People were happy to see us... It was a very pleasant experience other than the fact that we weren't going anywhere" (06:55).

Operational Challenges

Upon finally setting sail, the ship faced immediate operational hurdles. Regulatory issues prevented the ship from departing Belfast as planned, resulting in an additional three-day anchorage offshore. This period was marked by rising frustrations among passengers as basic amenities began to fail.

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Life Afloat: Challenges Faced

Essential Services Failures

The prolonged delays exacerbated existing problems aboard the ship. Wastewater tanks filled quicker than anticipated, leading to the shutdown of critical services:

• Hot Water Outage: Initially, the ship lost hot water, forcing passengers to endure cold showers (11:22).

• Complete Water Shutdown: The situation escalated quickly, resulting in a total loss of water supply. "There was no water of any kind. Nothing in the faucet, nothing in the shower... nothing that makes the toilets work," Joe explains (13:28).

These failures not only disrupted daily routines but also heightened tensions among passengers, contributing to a stressful and uncomfortable living environment.

Passenger Frustrations and Management Response

The inability to access basic amenities led to widespread dissatisfaction. Some passengers, voicing their frustrations publicly, faced repercussions from management. Joe notes, "a couple of women... have filed a lawsuit... management said, we don't think we want you to be with us, and booted them" (14:20). This crackdown on dissent created a divided community aboard the ship, with some choosing to comply silently while others faced consequences for their complaints.

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Interpersonal Dynamics on Board

Cheerleading Faction vs. Complainers

A noticeable divide emerged between passengers who maintained a positive outlook, viewing themselves as pioneers on an uncharted journey, and those who struggled with the mounting inconveniences. "There's a lot of peer pressure element that says, why are you making trouble... after the first two passengers got thrown off," Joe observes (15:31). This dynamic discouraged open criticism, leading many to internalize their frustrations.

Social Interactions and Community Building

Despite the challenges, Joe has managed to form cordial relationships with fellow passengers. "Everybody's been really nice. There's no one that I actually hate yet," he shares (25:17). However, forming deeper connections remains elusive, possibly due to the transient and strained environment created by ongoing issues.

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Amenities and Quality of Life

Subpar Facilities

Amenities intended to enhance the onboard experience fell short of expectations. Joe criticizes the ship's bar offerings: "It's like they went and selected the worst available beers... Heineken is 0% alcohol. It's not even real Heineken" (26:07). The absence of operational pools and other recreational facilities further diminished the quality of life for many passengers, especially those anticipating leisure activities integral to the cruise experience.

Positive Aspects

On the brighter side, Joe acknowledges the availability of good food, functional showers (post-repairs), and friendly personnel. Despite these positives, the continuous stream of problems overshadowed the benefits, keeping overall satisfaction low among passengers.

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Joe's Reflection and Future Outlook

Decision to Join the Cruise

When questioned about his choice to embark on the Villa VI Odyssey, Joe candidly admits it was driven by a lack of better options and a desire for change: "Because I didn't have anything better to do... it seemed like an interesting thing to do at a time when I was looking for something new to do" (07:00). His pragmatic approach contrasts sharply with other passengers who viewed the cruise as their lifelong dream.

Prospects of Completing the Voyage

Joe remains skeptical about the cruise's longevity. "There's no chance that I would make the whole three and a half years. In fact, I'd be surprised if I made it to January" (24:42). Given the persistent operational issues, he doubts the ship can maintain a smooth journey through challenging regions like Antarctica.

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Conclusion

This episode of Hyperfixed offers a candid glimpse into the complexities of living on the Villa VI Odyssey through Joe Rhodes' experiences. From initial excitement and hope to enduring frustration and disappointment, Joe's narrative highlights the stark realities of an ambitious but faltering residential cruise venture. As the series unfolds, listeners can anticipate further insights into the ongoing saga aboard the Villa VI Odyssey, shedding light on the human stories intertwined with grand maritime endeavors.

Note: This summary excludes promotional content and advertisements from the episode, focusing solely on the substantive discussions and experiences shared by Joe Rhodes.

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Notable Quotes

• Joe Rhodes on Joining the Cruise:

  • "It's not any deeper than that. It seemed like an interesting thing to do at a time when I was looking for something new to do." (07:00)

• On Passenger Reactions:

  • "There's also very much a cheerleading faction on the ship that doesn't think anybody should complain about anything because we're pioneering." (15:44)

• Regarding Amenities:

  • "It's like they went and selected the worst available beers... Heineken is 0% alcohol." (26:33)

• On Completing the Voyage:

  • "I'd be surprised if I made it to January." (24:42)

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Produced by Amor Yates, Emma Cortland, and Sari Safer Sukanek. Edited by Amor Yates. Music and engineering by Alex Goldman and Tony Williams, respectively. Fact-checked by Sona Avakian.

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Transcript

[Alex Goldman]

I'm Dallas Taylor, host of the 20,000 Hz podcast. On our show, sound designers, musicians and experts reveal the secrets behind the most iconic sounds in the world. From the I'm lovin it jingle to the sound effects of Star wars, from the Netflix to Doom to the music and sounds of Zelda. To unlock your sonic world, follow 20,000Hz right here in your podcast player. This episode of Hyperfixed is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates pricing coverage match limited by state law not available in all states.

[Brian Lowry]

Why do people commit themselves to the things they do? Why are people so worried about sport? Why wine? Why video games? I'm Brian Lowry and in this season of my podcast Know what yout See, I'm asking a simple question, but a really big what's the point? In conversations with people with a variety of passions and obsessions, we get the chance to look through a window and see what it means to truly focus on a realm of human experience. Join me on Know what yout See. New episodes begin November 26th.

[Alex Goldman]

Hi, I'm Alex Goldman and this is Hyperfixed. So this week we are unlocking a bonus episode and we are doing that for a couple of reasons. First of all, we are a very small crew, we have limited resources and unfortunately a wrench was kind of thrown in the works on an episode that we had planned to put out this week. It needs a little more time in the oven so we are kicking it down the road a couple weeks which will allow us to bother fine tune that episode for maximum enjoyment and give us a little breathing room to get ahead on some forthcoming episodes. And the second reason that we wanted to unlock this episode specifically is because it's the first in a series that we started on the bonus feed and we're very excited to see where the series will go. It's a story about a problem without a solution. In fact, it's a problem that in a lot of ways is self made. It's about a person who pretty early on knew that he was walking into a mess and he chose to charge headlong into it. Anyway, so I don't know if you've heard of this, but there's a cruise ship called the Villa v Odyssey that's just embarked on a three and a half year cruise. It took off from Belfast in October and over the next Three years it it'll be taking passengers to every continent and dropping anchor in hundreds of cities. If the whole enterprise sounds pretty stunty, that is at least partially by design. A bunch of the passengers are trying to parlay this experience into social media celebrity starting YouTube channels with names like Living Life on a Cruise and Midlife Cruisin'but. What's ended up gaining the most social media traction for the Villavie Odyssey have been a cascade of mishaps and false starts. When it finally left port in early October, it was over four and a half months past its originally scheduled departure date due to a cavalcade of mishaps, poor planning and paperwork delays. One of these passengers, who I suppose you could call a social media influencer if you count a substack written by a retired journalist as social media, is Joe Rhodes. We were so fascinated by his substack, we decided to ask him if he could do some dispatches from the ship over the course of its voyage, and he agreed. This is our first conversation about how things are going. We recorded this interview in October, a couple weeks after they set sail, and we're publishing our second interview with him on the bonus feed next week. We plan on staying with him regularly, interviewing him and his friends and family, and perhaps even the owners of the Villa VI Odyssey, if they'll talk to us. But first, we'd love you to meet Joe Rhodes. Joe's audio can be a little iffy here and there, but we did our best.

[Brian Lowry]

He.

[Alex Goldman]

He is on cruise ship WI fi after all. I think to start, I would just. I'm just wondering if you could introduce yourself, Name, age and where you're living right now.

[Joe Rhodes]

I'm Joe Rhodes. I'm 69 years old, about to turn 70, and I'm currently in my cabin on the VIAV Odyssey residential cruise ship, where I plan to be living for the next three and a half years.

[Alex Goldman]

Can you tell me, as a person who's never been on a cruise, I'm imagining the ship you're on to be like one of those giant Carnival Cruise Line.

[Joe Rhodes]

It's very much. Not that there's a lot of things appealing about this, but one of them is that it's not that there's no roller coasters, there's no casino, there's no screaming kids running around with the pool noodles. They converted the casino into a business center because they think of this as a floating residential complex. And a good percentage of the people that are on board are digital nomads who are able to run their business as Long as they've got good WI fi from pretty much anywhere in the world. So they're trying to make it as convenient as possible for those people to be able to continue to work. And then the. A. A bigger chunk are people like me who are retired and have just given up on life.

[Alex Goldman]

How long have you actually been living on the boat?

[Joe Rhodes]

I've only been on the boat for about a week and a half. We were initially supposed to sail May 15th out of Southampton.

[Alex Goldman]

Okay.

[Joe Rhodes]

But I knew, and everybody knew before we actually got to England that there would be what we thought was a small delay, a couple of weeks, and that it would be moved to Belfast. That we'd be leaving from Belfast because the ship was going into dry dock to get some pretty basic things done. The ship is an older ship. It's 30 years old, and it has not been in action since pre Covid. And the longer we were there, the more people became aware of the ship. People. That's how they refer to us. And. And so we were sort of like many celebrities. People were happy to see us. And if they found out you were one of the ship people, oh, they'd. They'd buy you a drink and, you know, ask you questions and make sure you were okay. And so it was a very pleasant experience other than the fact that we weren't going anywhere. And that certainly wasn't the adventure they had signed up for.

[Alex Goldman]

So I am curious. Why are you doing this again?

[Joe Rhodes]

Because I didn't have anything better to do, which sounds like I'm just making that up, but it's kind of true. I've lived in a van for the last 13 years. I'm a retired journalist. And when I retired, because I was a journalist and worked at lots and lots of different publications, I had friends scattered all across North America. And the idea of living in a van as opposed to being in one place was really appealing because it meant I could go see all my friends whenever I felt like it. So that's what I did. But 13 years is. Is a long time to look for new places. I'd basically been everywhere in the U.S. and Canada, you know, three or four times over the course of that 13 years. There were not a whole lot of surprises left to, you know, I knew what was around the next corner pretty much everywhere I went. So I felt like I was in a little bit of a rut and wanted to change the chemistry a little bit. And then the news reports about this idea of these residential cruise ships came up, and this operation in particular, where they were going to go everywhere. You could take a ship, could live in your apartment. And most importantly for me, not that expensive, comparatively speaking. There have been residential cruise ships before, and there's still some others out there, but you've got to be a millionaire to. To go on them. They. You have to be a literal millionaire just to qualify. And, you know, they've got helipads. Depending on how you acquire your cabin here, you could either buy it like a condominium and, and own it and, and sublet it and time share it, do whatever you want, or you can just rent it like you're renting an apartment, pay a monthly fee. And, and for me, for the. For the small cabin that I'm in, that fee is. I pay $3,500 a month for my apartment, but that includes food, that includes the gym, the wi fi, the doctor visits, the laundry, the maid, pretty much everything you need. All. All included in that 3,500amonth. And the other advantages. You wake up every day in a new place. And I thought, well, that's. That's a pretty good deal. And they also arranged it so that I didn't have to put a big chunk of money up front. I could basically pay as I go. So I thought, even if it turns out to be just a hellscape, I'll always have the ability to bail out if I want. And it seems like more interesting than just continuing to drive down the same highways that I've been driving down the last 13 years. I think I'll give it a shot. It's not any deeper than that. It's like. It seemed like an interesting thing to do at a time when I was looking for something new to do. And. And so I. I signed up. I. I think this makes me very different than most of the people on board.

[Alex Goldman]

How's that?

[Joe Rhodes]

Most of the people on board, this has been, you know, the dream of their life, to live on a cruise ship. These are people. These are hardcore cruise people. They took cruise ships to get over here to get on the cruise. When the. When the cruise got delayed, they filled the time by getting on another cruise.

[Alex Goldman]

So in a word, how would you describe the experience so far?

[Joe Rhodes]

So far, I would say it's been incredibly frustrating because very little has gone right so far above and beyond the four months of being stranded in Belfast. Once we got out of Belfast, a myriad of things went wrong right away. First, including that we. It turns out we weren't really allowed out of Belfast. We. We had. We got on September 30, the evening of September 30, and the news crews were there and the champagne was there, and there was confetti and glitter and. And sparklers and champagne, and. But then it turned out we weren't actually cleared to go anywhere, so all we could do was leave the cruise terminal. And then about 10 miles offshore, they dropped the anchor, and then we had to stay there for another three days.

[Alex Goldman]

That seems like a pretty profound oversight.

[Joe Rhodes]

Yes. The people that own the ship would. Would argue that basically the, The. The inspectors kept changing the rules on them and they would say, if you just do these three things and you're free to go. And then they would do those three things, and then suddenly the inspectors would say, oh, you know, but you've also got to do this thing. But who knows what the real reason is? You know, it may just be that the ship was not in good enough shape to sail, and it was really hard to get it there. So anyway, so we spent three days offshore. They finally, and I don't know what changed, gave them the green light to go ahead and go. And we immediately, I mean, it's like. It's like we just robbed a bank. We just haul our butts out of there. And they told us at first we were. We were going to Scotland to do some sort of refueling stop, but somewhere in the next few hours changed their minds and decided that we'd be going to Brest, France instead. That. Which great. You know, everybody was just so happy to be a. On the ship and be going anywhere that nobody really cared where we were going. But I guess, and I'm not entirely clear on this, but I think the amount of time we spent anchored offshore and some other problems that may have preceded that meant that the wastewater tanks filled up much more quickly than they thought they would. So they had to turn off the. At first, they just turned off the hot water. So you. So that happened the night we were still anchored offshore. So there's no hot water. Nobody could take a shower unless you're, you know, willing to shiver. And. And then they said, but we'll get it fixed when we get to France. By. On the way to France, apparently the. The situation got more critical, so they turned off the water altogether. There's now no water.

[Alex Goldman]

Wait, there's currently no water.

[Joe Rhodes]

There was no. There was no water of any kind. Nothing in the faucet, nothing in the shower. Most importantly, nothing that makes the toilets work.

[Alex Goldman]

And how long did that last?

[Joe Rhodes]

That lasted a couple of days. A day. They. They finally, they. They were working on it frantically, but just took them longer to do so. But people. And this happened in the middle of night, and a lot of people didn't realize it had happened, so they got up and went about their. Their morning business and then realized that the deposits they made were not being transferred to another place. And so you had a lot of people sitting around with stinkier rooms, and it was the. The corridor had a certain essence to it for a while.

[Alex Goldman]

Deposits is a very diplomatic phrasing.

[Joe Rhodes]

Honestly, it was the best one I could think of.

[Alex Goldman]

You did great.

[Joe Rhodes]

It's not the word we used on. On the ship, believe me. We get to Brest and. And. And it turns out that they had not been able to secure a port that allowed us to get off the ship. We had to. We had to dock at a container port. So now we're stuck there while they work on the. On the water tanks. But we. We can't get off the boat yet again. It's an ongoing source of anger and resentment and frustration and. And there's been a lot of back and forth and a lot of finger pointing and. And some of us have complained more publicly than others. A couple of people complained so much they wouldn't let them come on the cruise while we were still stuck in Belfast. There were a couple of women, at least one of whom has filed a lawsuit, were complaining about, you know what, why isn't this working? When are you going to tell us about that? To the point where management said, you know what? We don't think we want you to be with us, and booted them. Had him walk the plank.

[Alex Goldman]

I am, I think, a very tolerant consumer for the most part. I would be pretty annoyed, too. I mean, people are giving up their lives on shore to go on this trip for three years.

[Joe Rhodes]

And I don't think there's anybody that wasn't annoyed. It was just a question of how they dealt with it. And, and some of us, you know, complained, but. But, you know, with. With the limitations. Some of us there. There's also very much a cheerleading faction on the ship that doesn't think anybody should complain about anything because we're. We're pioneers, for God's sakes. Nobody's ever done this before. We should be grateful just to be a part of it. And so when anybody. There's definitely a peer pressure element that says, why are you making trouble rocking the boat? So to speak, Particularly after the first two passengers got thrown off. Have been keeping their complaints largely to themselves because they're afraid if they ask too many questions or cause too much of a stink, they'll kick them off too. And people that have bought units in particular more so than me as a renter, I've got less at stake here than almost anybody. You know, the worst that's going to happen to me is I'll lose next month's rent for some reason. But the people that have bought their units have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars invested in this thing and its success. So they they are the ownership in some way.

[Alex Goldman]

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[Dallas Taylor]

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[Alex Goldman]

I'm just curious, like you said that you lived in a van for 13 years before you did this. I'm curious and I hope this doesn't come off as rude, but why. Why were you living in a van as opposed to living. How would I describe it? Tradition? Traditionally, in a house, in a home.

[Joe Rhodes]

Like a normal person. Why weren't you living like a normal person? Is that what you meant to say?

[Alex Goldman]

Yes. Yeah. In the politest way possible. Yes.

[Joe Rhodes]

I've been. I was. I was a working journalist, freelance journalist. The business, as you you well know, was shrinking rapidly and I didn't think I could afford to keep living in Los Angeles. And I needed to make a change of some sort. But there wasn't any particular place that I wanted to go. I didn't want to, I certainly didn't want to move to New York. That wasn't going to make my life any easier. And it occurred to me that what I'd really like to do is to be able to just go wherever I wanted whenever I felt like it, see all my friends, continue to work and, and also not have to spend as much money as it would cost me to keep living in Los Angeles, considering that my income was. Was shrinking. And so I, I decided that the way to do that was to live in a van, which of course has now become a thing. There were there, there was no, there was no hashtag then.

[Alex Goldman]

There was no, there was no hashtag van life back then.

[Joe Rhodes]

Van life was not a hashtag. But I, I thought this was a cool, this would be a cool way to live. And so I I, you know, took some time and found a used sprinter van and had it refurbished and with a bed and a shower and a microwave and a toilet and, and, you know, everything I thought I needed and then just basically spent the next 13 years drifting around the continent and having a great time. It turned it, it was absolutely the best decision I ever made.

[Alex Goldman]

How would you characterize the decision to get on the ship right now?

[Joe Rhodes]

I would say not as good a decision. A lot of the, excuse me. A lot of the bars and restaurants are not yet open. There have been a number of problems with plumbing and also with air conditioning. And I, and I think for some people the WI fi has not been to their expectation. It's been fine for me, but I know some people that, that need a lot of bandwidth had been, it's been left short for them a few times. But the, the food is good, the, the, you know, the showers are great, the people are great, but there's a lot of things that they just didn't get around to. And then we're, you know, we're going to Gibraltar, we're going to Casablanca, we're going to Senegal, all in the next couple of weeks. That's great. It's not great if we can't use the toilet or take a shower, but I'm, I'm fairly confident that we're past that part. I mean, maybe we're not, we're going to, we're going to see how it holds up. But if things keep improving to the degree that they have over the last few days. There have really been no significant problems in the last few days for me. For some of the, of the cruise life people, they're still unhappy because the pools are not yet operational, their swimming pool is not operating. I don't care because I'm not going to be up there anyway. But that's a big deal. And of course, by the time they get to the Caribbean and places like that, they're certainly going to want to be able to lounge in and buy the pool. So there's a, apparently there's a crack. They can't fill them up until they've fixed it. And also there may be some weight bearing issues underneath it. It's a, it's a million little things, some of them incredibly petty, but some of them obviously quite serious. You don't, you don't want the pool to be collapsing down on the people in the deck below. So. Yeah, no, I'm against it.

[Alex Goldman]

That's, I, I've always said that about pools. I don't want them falling on me.

[Joe Rhodes]

No, that's not the proper use of the pool.

[Alex Goldman]

How. What do you think your. The, the percentage shot is that you're going to, you're going to last all the way to the end of this thing?

[Joe Rhodes]

If I live through Antarctica, I think I will complete the journey.

[Alex Goldman]

And when is Antarctica?

[Joe Rhodes]

Antarctica is in January, but stuff is breaking all the time, and you just never know from one day to the next what's going to be operational. No, there's no chance that I would make the whole three and a half years. In fact, I'd be surprised if I made it to January. It can't keep on going like it has.

[Alex Goldman]

How did you perceive before you went on this trip? How. What was your perception of cruises?

[Joe Rhodes]

I signed up for this not having ever been on a cruise of any kind. Some friends of mine suggested that perhaps I was an idiot.

[Alex Goldman]

Have you, have you made any friends on the trip so far?

[Joe Rhodes]

Yeah, everybody's been really nice. I. There's no one that I actually hate yet. I don't. I don't know that I've made any friends for life. It's a cruise ship, which means that it tends to be a little bit older and I think more conservative crowd, and there's a lot of people from Florida here. So you, you can. Yeah, yeah. You can do without what, what you. What you will.

[Alex Goldman]

I mean, immediately, it conjured a certain person to mind, but that person happens to be my mom, who lives in Tampa, so.

[Joe Rhodes]

Okay, well, there you go. You know, I'm sure your mom would be very happy here.

[Alex Goldman]

Yeah, I think she probably would.

[Joe Rhodes]

And, and there's a lot of people's moms here and, and, and they're mostly lovely people. I don't know. You know, I don't know if I found any kindred spirits yet, but I might. My biggest complaint so far has been the, the beer that they serve in the local bar. In the, in the, the ship's bars had been terrible.

[Alex Goldman]

Oh, what's, what's wrong with the beer? What are they serving there?

[Joe Rhodes]

It's, it's just, it's. It's like they went and selected the worst available beers and said, these are the ones we're going to sell you. Here's your choice. You've got your choices of your Bud Light, your Coors Light. Oh, no, your Corona or your Heineken. But The Heineken is 0% alcohol. It's not even real Heineken.

[Alex Goldman]

Why would they do that?

[Joe Rhodes]

Well, apparently nobody in that buys stuff for them. Drinks actual beer. So I would say that's been the most suffering I've endured is just trying to get by, you know, drinking Corona.

[Alex Goldman]

How do you prepare for something like this? Like what, what, what? I mean, you were already living in a van, so you were already pretty, pretty mobile. I assume that your, your possessions were pretty paired.

[Joe Rhodes]

This, this required less of a lifestyle change for me than, I'll bet, for anybody else on the ship because I'd already gotten rid of all my stuff and, and my room here on the van is actually, I mean, here on the ship. See, that was Freudian. My room on the ship is bigger than the room I, you know, lived in on the van. So I, it's not like I had to make a lot of hard choices about what to bring or not bring with me. I, I loaded what I needed into a couple of suitcases and then unloaded them in the room. That, that was pretty much it. I didn't, I didn't have to, I already didn't have a permanent address. I had to, you know, I, I, so I kept the, the address that I have, which is the address of a friend in Texas. And so all my documents and stuff go there. But 90% of, of the transactions of life happen online now anyway. So, so it, you know, there may be some complications getting some prescription drugs in some places, but so far we, that hasn't been an issue. But for, no, I didn't have to do anything. You know, lots of people sold their houses and, you know, disowned their children and, and, you know, made major. And those are the people that have, have particularly suffered with all the uncertainty. It's like they haven't, they, they have no home to go to. This is it. You know, if they, if the, if the cruise doesn't work, they're, they're back at the side of the road, which for me would not be that big a thing.

[Alex Goldman]

Hey, I love talk. We love talking to you, Joe. This was so fun. I'm, I'm looking forward to doing this again soon. Thank you so much.

[Joe Rhodes]

All right, man. Bye.

[Alex Goldman]

Take care. Hyper Fixed was produced by Amor Yates, Emma Cortland and Sari Safer Sukanek. It was edited by Amor Yates. It is hosted by me, Alex Goldman. The music in this episode was by me. It was engineered by Tony Williams. Fact checking by Sona Avakian. I know it's annoying to hear podcasters constantly ask you to become premium members, but it's really the only way for us to keep afloat these days. So if you want to hear bonus episodes, join our Discord, follow the continuing saga of Joe Rhodes and much, much more. Go to hyperfixpod.com join this show can't exist without your problems to solve, so head on over to hyperfixpod.com and submit your problems. Hyperfixed is a proud member of Radiotopia from prx, a network of independent, creator owned, listener supported podcasts. Discover audio with vision at Radiotopia fm. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you soon. Radiotopia from PRX.