On the way up we picked up last minute supplies at a K Mart in a Reno suburb. The suburban desert development reminded me of parts of Houston - flat and depressed. Preplanned and prefab in a way that's both sinister and banal. It felt more like David Lynch than Norman Rockwell. After that, we drove straight through to Gerlach, down a long and winding two-lane desert road that cut through an Indian reservation and little farming towns.
Power lines criss-crossed the dry, empty land.
Smooth rock slopes down to a small river that's clearly been cutting through these hills for thousands of years. This whole area was once underwater. You can see the strata levels in the hills around us. We're driving through the desert on the floor of some vast inland sea. It's been hard to write.