Depeche Mode in Santa Barbara, Oct 02 or "Home"

When we woke up the next morning, we first saw our surrounding. Wonderful, the mountain view.
I ran for a while though the desert ( together with huge rabbits)  and then I climbed into the pool, which was fed with mountain water. Yes, it was really cold.
After a vegan breakfast we were back on the road to Santa Barbara.
We drank a beer in Kern City, a small village into the mountains. Look typical american, a little bit like in the movie "Rambo".
The taste of the incidents in Las Vegas was still very bitter on our tongue. My goodness, the weapons laws have to be changed here urgently.
Now the landscape was changing, we arrived at the Pacific Ocean.
I love mountains, but to be at the ocean is a different feeling.
Santa Barbara, hometown of Mr. Martin Lee Gore is a very friendly small city. But very rich, totally different to all the other cities or villages we saw.
We arrived just an hour before the concert started so we hurried up and were only a few minutes at the Santa Barbara Bowl before Depeche Mode went on stage.
The Santa Barbara Bowl is a very small amphitheater (4500 people) nestling in a mountain slope.
We had good places and after a short while most of the people stood up. Was an easy evening for Mr. Gahan in this small place under a wonderful star sky with a bright shining moon. Relaxed and friendly mood.
His main difficulty was not to fall off the stage, because of the little locality, there was no catwalk. Sometimes he made a step in the direction of the imaginary catwalk but he changed his mind shortly before he could fell into the crowd..... ( reminds you of the times when he jumped into the audience with full intent in the 90ies...).
A great concert. After the concert we went to an after show party, enjoyed one beer and went back to our hotels, because we were so tired after these two days of traveling.
#depeche Mode #globalspirittour #devotee #santabarbara



                                                                   Olancha

Isabella Lake

Kern City

Santa Barbara

Exiter Town

Home of Mr. Martin L. Gore

Depeche Mode on Globalspirittour or alive

After the great Vegas Concert we left the city next morning in the direction of the Death Valley.

First we bought enough to drink and many delicious stuff in one of the big supermarkets here. You could spend an entire day in these huge stores.
We are a group of 6 people here in America. Two pairs and me and my friend Fabian from Berlin.
We stay the most of the time in different hotels, because we have different requirements at the hotels. I need a big swimming pool, because I love to swim every morning. The most  hotels have pools but I need a bigger pool for swimming not a small one for splashing.
So we left Vegas as a group of four people to discover the Death Valley, we will meet our other two friends in Santa Barbara in two days again.
We started the tour through the Death Valley at the small town called Beatty.
Beatty is home to the ghost town of Rhyolite and the Goldwell Open Air Museum (a sculpture park).
It's a strange city, a little bit like the end of the World, but you have to visit the Goldwell Open Air Museum. Strange sculptures, strange mood there in the air.
Beatty is the test track for the " Erlkönige", new vehicles will be tested there under extremely conditions in the Desert of the Death Valley.
It felt like the border to a parallel world. We were afraid to cross an invisible threshold and be drawn into the parallel world. A bit like in the movie "Poltergeist".
Then we cross the boarder to California and entered the Death Valley.
Look at my pictures because words are not enough to describe what we saw.. The mountains don't look like mountains, they look more like creatures. Alive and dangerous. You feel as if you were in a filming location for a science fiction film. This is the best option, the other option you can imagine is, you are now in the parallel world, maybe on Mars......
Warnings are everywhere "Heat kills" and that's true. It's so hot there.
We visited the typical tourist points like Zabriskie Point and tried to reach the "Red Cathedral". It was just to hot for a 30 minute walk. And Badwater Basin, the deepest point of the Valley is 85.95 meters below sea level.
In the late afternoon we drove about the hills, foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Unbelievable curvy endless streets. Finally we reached Olancha, a small place with a few hotels. We couldn't see our surrounding, because we arrive in the darkness.
We were all in bed early. But before I went to bed I checked my E-Mails and social platforms and I read about the shoot-out on a Country Festival in Las Vegas, where more than 50 people died. My family and many friends wanted to know if everything is ok. Yes, we are alive, we left Vegas before the shoot-out, but we were shocked. Unbelievable cruel.
My condolences for all concerned.

The Goldwell Open Air Museum

Entrance of the Death Valley

We couldn't reach the Red Cathedral