Day 38. The overnight flight from Tokyo leaves at 8:25pm so I’m not ready to go right to sleep.  I decide the blog can wait and opt to watch a movie. While I’m not sleepy, I know I must be tired.  How do I know? Because I watch a movie, Second Change, that took me ~30 mins to realize I had already watched previously.  Obviously not a memorable movie.  I try again selecting Bohemian Rhapsody which is a rockumentary of Freddie Mercury and the band Queen.  I rather quite liked the movie but then again I was a Queen fan growing up.  

The first challenge is that before I know it the flight is landing and I realized was up all night watching movies and forgot to sleep.  The second challenge is that I’ll have Bohemian Rhapsody playing in my head for rest of the week.

We fly into Cairns and Port Douglas is about an hour drive.  There does not seem to be readily available public transportation in the more remote NW so I’ve reserved a rental mini-van.  Our flight arrived at 4:20am and we get through all the usual immigration and customs stuff at 5am.  Perfect, the Avis car rental says it opens at 5am.  Two Mochas, three diet cokes and an hour and half later, the Avis counter is still dark and abandoned while the Hertz and Budget have been open buzzing since 5am.  Leanne goes over to ask the Hertz guy about the MIA Avis guy.  He tells her that he should have been here but sometimes the mate stays out too late the night before.  Oh great.  

We decide to walk the 15 mins to the domestic terminal.  On the way over, Justin says “Dad, you know they drive on the left side of the road here, right?”  I feign a smile and say “Of course I knew that son” pretending like I knew it all along while more than slightly panicking inside.  In more than thirty years of driving that is something I’ve never done.  I was having trouble crossing the street in the UK and Japan with the left sided driving, now I going to have to drive a giant mini-van on the wrong side of the road?” I was just praying the Avis clerk doesn’t ask me if I’ve ever driven on the left side before.

We proceed out of the rental lot and it is really hard. After 30+ years, driving is an ingrained combination of skill, instinct and habit.  Now I have to figure out how to undo those thirty years instantaneously. On no sleep as well.  Right out of the gate, we are hit with three round abouts in the first mile.  I’m not good with round abouts in the US.  One mile in, and I’ve lost count of the number of cars that honked at me (and not just the short beep honk, we’re talking the long angry shouting 15 second honk).  I’m debating the merits of turning around and returning the damn mini-van but decide that forcing a two day walk with our backpacks and luggage won’t make me the most popular person in the family.

Besides praying to my God, I also pray to the Shinto god of clueless American drivers who have to drive a large vehicle on the wrong side of the road in the land down under.  With 8 million Shinto gods, there could possibly be one and if there isn’t already one, I vow to build him or her a shrine if I make to Port Douglas alive.  My prayers are answered and we make it in-tact.

We arrive before we can access our Air BnB so we get brekky and walk the town.  Port Douglas has a resort feel to it but is all local. Local coffee shops, local restaurants, local shops.  No Starbucks, no McDonalds, no American chains.  That illusions lasts about 5 mins until we walk right smack into a Target followed by a Dominos.  I add a new goal to the trip to find a town that has absolutely no American brands, fast food, chains, stores of any sort.  

Our Air BnB is just what we need.  We built Port Douglas into the schedule as a “rest” week.  This means spending more time recovering and lounging around the rental house.  So we got a larger than normal place with a pool.  Everyone is happy and is off to get various combinations of naps, WiFi access and swims in the pool.    

The group unanimously votes that I will BBQ for dinner.  The Air BnB has probably the best BBQ grill I’ve ever cooked on.  It is built into the side of the house with a refrigerator under a massive counter to layout and prepare the food.  There are 8 burners, a huge exhaust system build over the grill and spot lights.  To say I had grill envy would be an understatement.  Alas, the grill leaves me in a state of quandary as I don’t know how I’m going to go home to my little Costco grill.