Dead cars

What do you do when you buy a new car? For one thing, you trade in your old one. But have you ever wondered where that old car ends up? It won't last forever.

If it dies in the city, it will be hauled to a junk yard. But if it dies in the country, it will be hauled nowhere; it will remain where it dies -- in a front yard, alongside a barn, or, often as not, in a field where nature can slowly reclaim it.

I interviewed a rodeo cowboy once named Wilson Tate. He was in town for the big Folsom Rodeo in northern California. He went through cars like most of us go through razor blades. His last car had died in the outback of Nevada. "I just pulled out my gun and shot it," he said. And then he walked away.

Travel the backs roads as I do, and each trip you will see 30 dead deer, 60 dead jack rabbits, 3 dead coyotes, 34 dead snakes, 23 dead squirrels, 17 dead skunks, and 6,000 dead cars.