Contact info: Upon arrival in Melbourne, I purchased a local SIM card for my cell phone -- giving me a local number and lots of high speed data. However, the downside of this is that my prior phone number will be disabled until I return to the USA on November 7 -- both for calls and regular text messages. So, if you are trying to reach me - please do so through What's App (the message program used everywhere in the world except USA and China) with my regular phone number or Facebook Messenger and I will send you my Australian number for regular texting.
October 18/19: So, one additional reason that may have made the flight more affordable is that arrival in Melbourne was 11:00pm -- requiring me to get a motel near the airport for the first night, adding another $100 or so to the cost of "getting here." The motel shuttle was delayed, so I finally put my head on the pillow after midnight for my first real (non-airplane) sleep in about 31 hours.
Slept well and on Thursday morning I made my way to car rental place and drove about 1 1/2 hours to Basalt, Australia near Daylesford -- staying with a cousin whose family still owns the original home site of my great grandfather previously blogged about here. It was great to reconnect with my cousin -- and spend hours digging into more family tree information that he has collected over the years.
