Day 4: Hawthorne to Carson City

We’re in high desert country now as we roll out of Hawthorne and skirt Walker Lake, shining like a jewel in the midst of the sagebrush. The air is cooler, the foliage is greener, and both trees and cattle begin to dot the landscape. After the heat of the Las Vegas valley The Reverend Reporter (a northern Nevadan) is relieved to finally return to higher altitude and cooler climate. We spent the morning cruising through Pauite country, then rolled passed lush alfalfa fields before driving through the small tidy town of Yerington before dropping down into the Carson Valley and into Carson City, capital of Nevada.

We're back in the city (well, sort of) after getting a taste of rural Nevada, and our first stop after lunch was the State Legislature building, where the candidates meet with representatives of the Religious Alliance in Nevada, an ecumenical advocacy group that "addresses issues of social justice in the state legislature and the public arena." One of the most powerful presentations was by The Rev. Jane Foraker-Thompson, a prison chaplain, who described the crisis conditions inside Nevada prisons and told us about her work in prison reform. Afterwards the candidates met with Justice James Hardesty of the Nevada Supreme Court, and at this point The Reverend Reporter slipped away for a needed caffeine break and to fetch my laptop for this evening's walkabout, which I must hasten away to attend.