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Only a small number of people turned out for a Tea Party Express rally in Elko, Nevada. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images The Tea Party movement has gained the image of an unstoppable wave of anger sweeping everything before it as it seeks to overthrow the Washington establishment. Well in Elko, Nevada, last night it looked a little less than that.
About 150 people turned up in an open field on a very chilly night to welcome the Tea Party Express, the bus tour that is crossing America in the run-up to next month's midterm elections. Most of the participants were in their sixties or above, and the event had more in common with a sedate charity gala than a political revolution.
The low turnout and lack of energy was puzzling as it came just four hours' drive after a rousing start to the bus tour in Reno, addressed by Sarah Palin. I was lost for an explanation. This was after all the same state, the same battle to boot out Harry Reid, the local senator closely associated in Nevada with the big government spending habits of the Obama administration.
Then I talked to Tom Norris, an affable retired truck driver. The answer was pretty simple, he told me. The hunting season had just begun. Hunters and their families were out on the trail of elk (apparently no connection to the town's name) and deer.
"I'd have been gone myself if my ticket had come up," Norris said.
Ticket had come up?
"It's a lottery. Numbers are drawn and if yours comes up you can go hunting. It's a way to control the size of the shoot."
The other possible explanation for the poor turnout was that Elko is hurting slightly less than other parts of Nevada in the economic downturn. The unemployment rate here is less than 9%, compared with more than 14% for the state generally - the highest in the country.
Elko is traditionally a cowboy town, serving mile upon mile of ranches in all directions. But it also has a thriving mining industry, and of one metal in particular - gold.
With the slide of the dollar, gold has become ever stronger, and now stands at more than $1,300 (£827) an ounce. People have been moving in to Elko to work in its underground or surface gold mines.
Gold is also one of the great staples of the Tea Party movement. Glenn Beck speaks about it on his shows with almost reverential respect (but then he does get paid by one of America's largest gold dealers to do so).
Which is paradoxical. Gold is a Tea Party favourite, but here in Elko it has lifted the local spirits, perhaps rendering the populace less receptive to the movement's "knock 'em down" message.
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