a billboard on the highway in Nevada proudly adverted that Battle Mountain, Nevada was voted the armpit of the country in a poll by the Washington Post. my vote would've gone to a town in central Idaho, I can't recall the name of. passing thru a few times I got the impression that economic turns have been consistently downward. plus it was dry, dusty, hopeless. even so, a fresh running river ran thru, and the mountains gawked above.