After a nice filet migon dinner at Harris’s SteakHouse in San Francisco with Zia and Mike, I headed to SFO airport. Of course my upgrade to business class didn’t come through because the plane was full, but since we left at 10:20pm, I took an Ambien and was asleep before lift off. I awoke 8 hours later and got to know my seat mates — a girl from Syndey who gave me driving advice for Australia and an American rock band member from Michigan. He was on a world-wide band tour with his 5 friends, and I learned how tough it is to make money in the music industry anymore because of all of the pirating of music. He said they get paid anywhere from $200 to $2000 a show, and have a range of 50 to 5,000 people show up — with bigger audiences in Europe, and an amazing group of 22,000 in Japan. But after paying their agent, manager, and costs, they barely get any money. He said he often saves his $10 per day food per diem to help make ends meet, while his wife keeps down the fort at home. Tough life — you have to be dedicated to be a rock musician now. He said the name of his band was Still Remains.
The flight landed a little late in Syndey, but I easily made my Melbourne connection and checked into the hotel by noon. Driving the rental car on the left side of the road was another story — see Yarra Valley.