Here I Go Again, Runnin' Down A Dream...

Here I go again, I'm runnin' down a dream. Who wouldn't wanna be me? Just me and you and a dog named Boo, just me and my Bobby McGee. With the window rolled down and the wind in my face, I'm cruisin' down the highway, singin' the roadhouse blues. Just me and you and a dog named Boo, just me and my Bobby McGee.

Beside my ramblin' man, the King of the road, I'm taking the free ride, just rockin' down the highway. On the long and winding road again, maybe this time goin' all the way to sweet home Alabama. We gotta travel on, eastbound and down, but we're takin' it easy now, cause we've been everywhere. We were born to run, even if we weren't exactly easy riders. We got our kicks on Route Sixty Six. We took a magic carpet ride on a magic bus, over the hills and far away on Thunder, Thunder Road.

Life was a highway in those days, sometimes with no particular place to go. It was road trippin' with my travelin' man, no sleep till Brooklyn. Sometimes runnin' on empty, but always singing the open road song, 'take me home country roads to the place I belong', one moonlight mile after another, hoping not to get lost on the highway to Hell.

Now, we're on a slow ride, we're midnight riders, maybe on the way to Graceland, still cruisin' on. Slow running down a dream, maybe two hundred more miles to the Promised Land, we're on the road to find out, just runnin' down a dream. Takin' the long way home, seeing America, free and easy down the road, loving this land which is my land, this land which is your land, from the New York Island, to the redwood forests, to the Gulf stream waters.

We're rollin' down the highway, headin' for the light. I can't drive 55 anymore, so its lucky there's two of us. Rolling the dice, we sing out, 'heads Carolina, tails California'. Just roll me away, Bobby, roll me away, 'cause the road's my middle name. Say good bye to Maybelline, get out the map and head towards Kansas City. So happy goin' mobile on the road again. Can't nobody say, I can't get the load out, cause honey, I get around.

Hit the road, travelin' man, 'cause its 200 more miles to Cadillac Ranch, its somewhere off Lake Shore Drive. Give 'ten four' to the convoy and a salute to the low rider as we pass by. They might laugh, but we're still born to be wild, even if we've gone mostly grey and we go a little slower now, even if we're closer to going up around the bend down the lost highway. It's God's truth and we know it, we gotta travel on.

So, lets take the road to California this time. Drive down Ventura Highway while I hang out the window singing 'cause I'm a free bird. There's plenty of time to take it easy after the travelings done, to turn that page when we come to that place in the story. For now, lets just keep cruisin', taking the long way, just following the white line, one headlight at a time.

We're still up to speed, ain't we Bobby? So, roll me away, I'm running down a dream. I'm bad, I'm nationwide. Who wouldn't wanna be me?

Maybe next time, we'll drive south, me and you and a dog named Boo. After we we go from Jersey to OC. We'll ease on down the road, heading south and down, down country roads to somewhere I forgot, somewhere I might belong. We'll go, East bound and down, six days on the road, gonna make it home that night.

I had a lot of fun with this. How many 'road' song titles can you identify in the piece? Tomorrow, the Badger comes home to Bobby McGee (Danny) and me.