# The washed-out road to the airport > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The washed-out road to the airport," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-washed-out-road-to-the-airport/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The drive to catch a flight to the Joe Rogan taping, after a hurricane took out the only road from the Baja resort, thirty-five miles in almost two hours, driven by his co-star Jeff Fahey and by Tyrel Ventura, over a dune, across cactus, with the animals jumping out of the way.* - **Purpose of the trip:** To fly out and record the Joe Rogan podcast - **The drivers:** Jeff Fahey and Tyrel Ventura - **The cause:** A hurricane had washed out the road - **How far the road lasted:** Less than 100 feet - **Distance and time:** 35 miles in almost two hours - **The route taken instead:** Up a dune and over cactus - **The comparison offered:** Worse than the roads in Afghanistan **The washed-out road to the airport** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of the drive that got him off the Baja peninsula in time to record [the Joe Rogan podcast](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/joe-rogan) in October 2025. ## Who was driving The two men who took him were both on the film. *"[Jeff Fahey](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/jeff-fahey) is the star of the movie that I was in, and is an easily recognisable face if you just Google Jeff Fahey. He and Tyrel Ventura, Jesse's son, drove me to the airport early one morning to go to do the Joe Rogan show."*[1] ## What the hurricane left Kiriakou could not recall the storm's name, *"hurricane Loretta or whatever the heck it was, I don't remember"*, but he was precise about the result. *"It had come through and it washed out the road. And so they were like, you know, buddy, you may not make it. We're not sure we can make it."*[1][2] The warning proved conservative. *"We didn't go 100 feet and the road just didn't exist. It had just washed away."*[2] What followed was not a detour so much as an improvisation across open desert. *"And we had to drive up this dune, over cactuses, and animals are just jumping out of the way."*[2] ## The arithmetic *"And it took us, to go the 35 miles took us almost two hours. And then those poor guys had to drive back."*[2][3] The comparison came from Fahey, who had a recent basis for it. *"Jeff said to me: I was just in Afghanistan six weeks ago, and the roads aren't this bad in Afghanistan."*[3] Kiriakou agreed, with a chronological caveat drawn from his own service: *"I said, I know. I've been a million times in Afghanistan."* The roads there, he added, *"used to be"* that bad, *"before 2005 they were."* But this, he concluded, *"was bad."*[3] ## What it was for The punchline of the whole sequence, delivered immediately afterwards, is not about the road at all. *"Anyway, the important thing is: I got to be in a real Hollywood movie, Ted. Like a real honest-to-God Hollywood movie."*[3][4] The two-hour crossing of a destroyed road, in other words, is offered as the price of admission to a life he plainly did not expect to have at sixty, and the same journey delivered him to the largest podcast audience in the world. ## See also - [Jeff Fahey](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/jeff-fahey) - [Joe Rogan](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/joe-rogan) - [Kiriakou's acting career](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-acting-career) - [Tyrell Vanto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/tyrell-vanto) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 05:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=317s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 05:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=350s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 06:21. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=381s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 06:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=412s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-washed-out-road-to-the-airport/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt