I was born, raised, am still fortunate enough to live here on the California coast. Over the past few days, however, I came to quickly appreciate a modern convenience known as “air conditioning”. The wife and I spent the weekend up in the Roseville, Nevada City, Newscastle area, with me playing music, spending a bit of time with friends, and checking in with the area’s wonderful community of folks who are VERY appreciative of acoustic, singer/songwriter types like me.

We experienced an interesting contrast as we left home: The night drew in, but the air grew warmer. And then we realized: “We’re going towards Sacramento. And the Sierras. In July.”

We rolled into Roseville around 11:30 Friday night. A little sleep – “little” since the heat really didn’t drop all night – and I was up Saturday morning bopping around all day in the 104-degree heat: An appearance on KVMR FM with Larry Hillberg’s “Back Roads”, “howdy’s” with a few other KVMR DJs including Michael Babiarz and Wesley Robertson – Wesley seems to be the linchpin for all things music in Grass Valley – a cup of coffee at Evangeline’s Café in Colfax, and a quick nap at homebase in Roseville.

That afternoon it was off to Newcastle and big night at The Acoustic Barn. This was Kevin Odell’s 33rd show in 3 years. After a celebratory BBQ, I joined songwriters Greg Kitchel, Dana Hubbard, and Stephen Hohstadt for a sold-out crowd and an evening of in-the-round tunes that capped off around midnight. Eventually, I was having so much fun, I forget about the heat.

Sunday morning I was privy to see the nerve center of Wild West Radio in Roseville, played live on the air, and then spent some time interviewing stationmeister Jeff Scammon, documenting HIS story for a future episode of my “Songs and Stories” podcast.

My wife and I rolled back over Highway 17 around 7:00 pm Sunday night, with an absolutely gorgeous bank of fog enveloping the Monterey Bay Area. Yeah, it was warm up north. But what I think is even more overwhelming is just the amount of nice folk I’ve been fortunate enough to cross paths with up there.

And here back home, it’s still cool and foggy. 😉

Epilogue: This morning, a couple of Redding pals emailed me and asked, “When are you playing Redding again?” I wrote back and asked, “When does it drop below 114 degrees?”