Summary

In Chapter 6: The Lucky Country, Australia, 1978-79, the author describes buying a 1964 Ford Falcon station wagon and camping and surfing and down the east coast of Australia. In a beach town called Kirra, in Queensland, Finnegan and Bryan rented a bungalow where people who were Thursday Islanders lived. Bryan got a job as a chef in a Mexican restaurant, telling the owners he was half-Mexican, and Finnegan worked as a ditch digger and pot washer in a restaurant in a casino. Finnegan bought two new boards, including a fast board that he likens to a sports car. Kirra is on the Gold Coast and is known for surfing, which the locals assured them would start the day after Christmas.

Finnegan fell in love with Australia, which he had heard referred to as "The Lucky Country," and he found it the most democratic place he...