Bonnie and Clyde's Last Ride?

You got a fast car,
But is it fast enough so we can fly away?
We gotta make a decision;
We leave tonight or live and die this way . . .
- Tracy Chapman, Fast Car

What a fine spring day it was! The weather was gorgeous, sunny and breezy, a bit cool. So we seized the opportunity to spend the day in the Sproul State Forest maybe an hour or a bit more's drive from our home, hiking in an area we know well, where we have spent lots of time in the past 25 plus years, but hadn't visited in several  years.

It felt good to be back. We stopped in two different areas of the forest to hike, and put about seven miles (more than 11 km) on our boots, walking on green grassy paths dotted with puddles full of tadpoles, their bodies hefty and broad, with legs getting ready to emerge ("Get ready to release landing gear, men!"), and lined with trees, with just a few fluffy white clouds in the clear blue sky. Our winged escorts were a pair of tiny orange butterflies who flittered and fluttered just ahead of us.

The second hike was shorter than the first, just up the hill to a place where we have sometimes gone sled riding in the winter. We set up our chairs there to relax and enjoy what remained of the day. My husband hung out there while I walked down the side of the hill to this ruined car, which has been there ever since I've known this place. "Watch out for snakes," was the last thing he said before I hiked down the hill to visit the old car.

The car is a Ford Fairlane, blue, and judging by the patterns on the grillwork and the tail lights, looks to be about a 1960 model. This particular model of car was manufactured in the U.S. between the years of 1955 and 1970. When it was new, it might have looked something like this.

It's looking a bit the worse for wear, with a tree fallen on top of it and the doors riddled with bullets (if you look closely, you can see bullet holes on the open car door in the right part of the photo). Is it a remnant from an old crime scene? No, probably not. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing the bullets were added (in true Pennsylvania style) well after the time when it was abandoned in this spot.

The bullet-riddled car called to mind the hot rod Ford driven by Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, whose Depression-era crime spree - which involved robbing dozens of banks and killing at least nine people - was cut short by 130 rounds of a posse's bullets, on May 23, 1934. (P.S. The curious can visit that hot rod Ford - according to the Internet, it's still on display at Whiskey Pete's Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.)

The song to accompany this picture is Tracy Chapman's Fast Car.