Hello beautiful peepsÖ Scott said that I should introduce myself somewhere in here soÖ.My name is Jeff D. Johnson ñ Iím in the van with all the nice Cloud Cult people for the entirety of this tour as the opening act and sound engineer. There ñ step one completed. J

Anyway, so, Sacramento California ñ I suspect that Scott wanted me to write this tour journal to re-cap my rather interesting adventure in the hotelÖ we will get to that.

We arrived in Sacramento after a few days off where we got to hang a bit on the Oregon coast as well as in northern Cali. It was a beautiful rest after the madness of the Montana, through Seattle to Eugene run. The club was one of the smaller ones weíve played thus far on the tour, but in true Cloud Cult fashion they rocked the souls of the audience regardless of numbers.

After a great set in an intimate setting, we headed back to the Econo Lodge in downtown Sacramento. Upon arriving in room #219, Craig, Connie, Matthew and myself make ourselves at home in the snug accommodations. Craig and Connie graciously offer to sleep on the floor ñ their sacrifice is not rare on tour ñ so that Matt and I could each get our own beds. Well, after watching a PBS special on the Mormon church, I pull back the covers to get in bed only to notice a few small uninvited guests. Upon investigating further, I found that my entire bed is infested with small bed bugsÖ oh yeah, and when I went to commandeer a few of them, they popped into a bloody mess. Needless to say, after a brief and firm convo with the night attendant at the hotel, we were given a different room and slept soundly. Never again will a hotel bed go un-inspected by this fella.

After two weeks of being sick, Iím finally starting to feel a bit better. Itís good timing too, because SF and LA are two important shows on this leg of the tour. Tonight was a tough night, because we drove all day to get here, yet we have to pull an all-nighter driving after the show in order to get to Los Angeles for an AOL video shoot in the morning. Outside of being exhausted, the show, itself, was exhilarating. It was a sold out show here tonight, which is our third SF show in a row that weíve been lucky enough to have so full. I love the SF crowd so much, too. Itís interesting going from city to city to see how different crowds can be. You can be performing to a full house in two different cities and feel like youíre playing to two totally different organisms. One would think that all crowds (of a similar size and paying to see the same band) are pretty much the same. But itís really not like that. Each crowd has the feel of a totally unique organism. Some crowds feel like that old partying buddy from high school who always ended up drinking a little too much whenever you hung out. Some crowds feel like a hard-nosed music critic that really just needs a hug more than anything. Some crowds feel like you just walked in on someoneís surprise birthday party, but no one actually knows whoís birthday it is.. SanFrancisco is a crowd that oozes love like raspberry jam. Itís a crowd that is that long lost aunt who still treats you like youíre her favorite nephew whenever you see her, (even though you have the sneaking suspicion she probably treats all the kids that way). Iím tired, and looking forward to getting back to the farm, but it was really nice to see Auntie SF tonight.