00:0012 hours ago, I was watching the finale with all my friends and family, and they had no idea.
00:06I had kept them all in the dark.
00:08Even my parents were there watching with me.
00:10They didn't know.
00:11It was so fun to see the surprise in everyone's faces.
00:14And I had been planting seeds of doubt that, you know, just happy to be in the final three.
00:19And then when it was revealed that I won, we had confetti.
00:24We had a watch party.
00:25It was, like, so magical.
00:27And then it was a party most of the night.
00:29So I'm a little tired.
00:30Well, incredible to hear.
00:32Jet lag, I'm sure, is nothing compared to the post-celebratory, you know, exhaustion that comes with all this.
00:38But I'm excited to talk about what got you, you know, on the journey to get covered with confetti in the first place.
00:45What sort of, like, pitched to you about Destination X?
00:49And what made you ultimately decide to have this be your big reality TV debut?
00:54Yeah.
00:55This game was built for me.
00:57Like, travel, geography, trivia.
01:01Those are what make me tick.
01:04I just, like, from a child.
01:07Like, my dad was a pilot.
01:08So I had those privileges growing up of being able to fly around the world.
01:11So it was instilled in me from a very young age that you just want to explore.
01:17You want to see other cultures.
01:18You want to travel.
01:19When my wife and I were newly married and we had three small kids, we moved our whole family to South Africa for almost five years because of that want of exploration and travel.
01:30And then I had a job where I was traveling the world and, like, negotiating big contracts.
01:35And so, like, I always took every opportunity when I was traveling for work to also see the sights.
01:41We took our family on an RV trip throughout Europe, which just happened to be almost the identical trip of Destination X.
01:49Yeah.
01:49Spoiler.
01:502016.
01:51I'm in an RV driving all throughout, you know, Italy and Monaco and France.
01:54It's not knowing that all these life experiences, it's kind of like the Slumdog Millionaire, all culminated in Destination X, where, like, I'd been to all these places.
02:04I told the, you know, the casting directors, don't put me on the show.
02:08It's not fair.
02:08I'm going to be too good at this game.
02:10Hey.
02:11And it worked.
02:12Like, the trick for me was keeping quiet about how much I had traveled, keeping quiet that I'd been to all these places.
02:18And that was the game I played.
02:19And that was the strategic side that I wasn't prepared for going in, was how hard it was socially to just keep my mouth shut.
02:28Well, to that point, we have to talk about one big thing that you revealed in the finale.
02:33And we'll certainly get into, you know, your relationship with Peter and Janae that was very much under the radar.
02:38And, look, you had been able to get to the final three working alongside Peter.
02:42But it had to have been something completely different to sort of be able to kind of tell Biggie to his face, albeit, you know, behind your back, essentially.
02:49I couldn't turn around.
02:51I could not look him in the eyes because I knew it was going to break his heart.
02:55I knew he was crushed.
02:57I knew it was all coming, crumbling down with the cameras rolling.
03:02No time to process.
03:03Why is Rick sending me back every single time?
03:08I mean, watching it last night for the first time, I was gutted.
03:14And it felt hard.
03:18Yeah, talk to me about that.
03:20I mean, did you struggle emotionally with that?
03:21Because, again, you had been working with Peter up to this point.
03:24But it's one thing to do that.
03:25It's another to be like, hey, here's this guy who trusts me wholeheartedly.
03:28And I'm single-handedly eliminating him from the game.
03:31Well, I think it started in Monaco on the yacht when Jeffrey outed me with my fake pinecone clue, right?
03:38I thought I was free and clear.
03:40Nobody was the wiser.
03:41We can go to the finale and no one knows that I lied to Biggie.
03:44And then I got caught with that.
03:46So there was some damage control that I had to do with Biggie.
03:49So then going into the finale, I was in the right spot.
03:51I had my secret alliance with Pete.
03:53And then I had my, you know, from the beginning, the OGs with Biggie.
03:57I was like, I am perfectly placed here in the middle.
03:59And then we find out what the game is.
04:02And then it's like, oh, shoot.
04:05This is now going to get public real fast.
04:07Up until this point, like, normally it's all hidden.
04:09Like, when the dagger challenge, you've got your blindfold on.
04:12You don't know who's putting, you know, the daggers in your back.
04:14But this was out loud.
04:16I had to tell Biggie, I'm sending you back.
04:19And he didn't know why.
04:20And I kept doing it.
04:21So I finally said, I have to tell him why.
04:24And that's going to crush him.
04:26But at the same point, all he has to do is keep getting the questions right.
04:31And Pete, he kept getting the questions wrong.
04:34So, like, they're not helping each other.
04:36So I'm like, look, I'm going to stay in the front.
04:39I'm going to keep answering the questions right.
04:40They need to duke it out.
04:42I feel good at going against either one of them in the finale.
04:45But they just got to save themselves at some point.
04:47That's all I can do.
04:48Well, let's talk about your final two, Comrade, here.
04:50Talk to me about your decision to join up with these sort of reality TV veteran intruders in the first place.
04:56And what do you credit the most to being able to keep this so under wraps up until, you know, the mask comes off at the final three?
05:04Look, I had no choice but to take in Pete and Janae.
05:07Like, I was alone.
05:09Nobody wanted to trust me.
05:10Nobody wanted to work with me.
05:11You saw me asking for everybody after Josh threw me under the bus.
05:14Who wants to work with Rick?
05:15I'm open to anybody.
05:16Nobody chose me, right?
05:18Like, Biggie chose Shane, like, to his detriment.
05:21You should have chosen me.
05:22And so, like, I'm just grasping at anything to get an alliance.
05:25And so, when Pete and Janae come on and they're like, Rick, we want you.
05:28I'm like, pfft.
05:28So, I'm like, I'm taking Pete, you to the end.
05:31Because without you, I would have been out.
05:32They would have all ganged up with me, on me, eventually, probably in Amsterdam or Germany.
05:36So, I'm so happy.
05:38And I am loyal.
05:40If we have an agreement, you know, a pinky promise, whatever it is, that we're going to the end.
05:45And you saw that with Pete.
05:47Like, I could have taken him out many times.
05:49But, no, I'm with him to the end.
05:51That was our agreement.
05:53Yeah.
05:53So, why do you think it was so undetected?
05:56Because we saw a number of times, like, there would be these scenes in between tasks where, like, the two of you would be off talking.
06:02Was that just set up by production?
06:03How was nobody able to clock that this was happening?
06:05Yeah.
06:06So, some of the exit interviews, you know, Shane and Allie, they say they clocked it from day one.
06:10Then, how come there hasn't been a single, you know, confessional where they're saying, look, Rick's an alliance.
06:18Like, there's a lot of hindsight 2020.
06:20But it's because I did so much work on the bus, not spending any time with Peter Janais.
06:25I was always with the original cast, with the OGs.
06:30It was only when production forced us to be together, like, after a challenge, if we were on a team, they put the team together on the bus.
06:36And that's what you see as an audience at home.
06:39Those were times that we were forced to sit together.
06:41So, I never chose to sit with him.
06:45I never chose to ever talk to Pete unless I had to because I was playing the game of I want him out too.
06:52Let's just get back to the original cast.
06:53Let's get rid of Janais.
06:54Let's get rid of Pete.
06:55Knowing that I was trying to build rapport, that I was on their side.
06:59We had a common enemy with the new people, but I was feeding them everything.
07:02I mean, it was all but done in whispers or, you know, on the way to the bathroom or on the way to the bunks.
07:08Like, my conversations with them were so minimal on feeding them the Destination Xs or sharing the clues.
07:15Like, that's why I think it was brilliant because I was keeping those lives separate.
07:20Playing the middle game in reality is so hard.
07:22To have two alliances and not have them know about each other, so hard.
07:27But it worked.
07:28What is one thing that hit the cutting room floor that you wish the most we got to see?
07:33Either strategically, personally, comedically, anything from your time on the bus and beyond.
07:39Yeah, it was the fight with Shane and Peter.
07:42It was the big blow up, right?
07:44You didn't hear why.
07:46It's because Shane, love you to death, but he believes in every conspiracy theory known to man.
07:55And, like, you can't tell a pilot, Pete, that their moon landing didn't happen.
08:02Or, in fact, there isn't a moon.
08:04Or that the Earth is flat.
08:05These are all things that Shane Hook, Line, and Sinker believes in.
08:08That's why we're all like, what are you talking about, Shane?
08:11And then Pete's finally like, no, no, I've seen the curvature of the Earth.
08:14Like, I see that it is a...
08:17Like, how do you believe that the Earth is flat?
08:18How do you believe that there's no moon landing?
08:20So, like, that was the blow up.
08:22And we didn't see any of that.
08:23I just wish, I wish there was, like, a blooper reel.
08:26Show some of that.
08:27Because, like, the mic drops on that fight were, like, epic.
08:32We talked about it on the bus for days, and none of it made the show.
08:36I'm not sure if I can say this, but, yeah, that was so much fun hearing those two sparred out.
08:41Well, last but certainly not least, of course, you talked about, you know,
08:44how you hope to bring this money home to, you know, essentially help rebuild your life
08:48after, you know, everything that happened with COVID and the restaurant.
08:51How are things doing now?
08:53Give me the big update.
08:54Yeah.
08:55So, now I'm a content creator, right?
08:57How weird in 2025 you can make a career out of talking about birds.
09:00But that's what I do.
09:01I'm a bird watcher, and I love teaching other people about birds.
09:04So, I'm building that business.
09:05My wife, she just graduated law school.
09:08She's a whole new revolution in her 40s as well.
09:11So, we're building up our practices.
09:13We did sell our home last year because of the debt we had from COVID and the restaurant.
09:17So, that's all behind us.
09:19So, we do hope to buy a home again.
09:22So, a quarter million dollars helps with all of that.
09:24And, like I said, I'm a family man.
09:26I'm investing in our family.
09:27Well, congratulations.
09:29It was such a fun time to watch you go from, again, getting called out on the very first day
09:34to being the last one standing.
09:36It was an epic journey, not even geographically, but strategically as well.
09:40So, a huge congratulations to you and to your family.
09:43This was such a great time getting the chance to not only watch you, but talk with you today, Rick.
