driving down the road

i was driving down the road
with Carol and my heavy load
singing her crazy song
about war and everything going wrong
on highway 81
we were young and on the run
in the mountains of eastern Tennessee
a girl in love with her journey and me
heading west from the nearest sea
we didn't have a radio
the sun would show us where to go
across Virginia and across our mind
we didn't know what we would find
she had a picture of her rich old man
sitting in his back yard garbage can
he was smiling with a whisky sour
she laughed at him just about every hour
i had a poem from an old girl friend
waving goodbye at the very end
i laughed at her just about every hour
never had the sense to take a quick cold shower
i got the keys to a real hot deal
but i'm still looking for my next meal
and Carol is looking for her mister right
i'm no longer keeping her up at night
but we saw America and had our share
and i remember and can tell you where
we lay down by the flower meadow and saw the stars
on Saturday night after they closed the bars
i know where we climbed the toughest hills
and the view from the top which gave us chills
we saw the western ocean and slept on the silent sand
and if you didn't you would never understand
now i'm driving down the highway
and no one is looking my way
i am my own bypass in danger of running out of gas
but my eyes are still straight ahead
thinking of Carol and what might have been instead.