Young Road Trips

[Verse 1]

We crossed the Vietnam Veterans Bridge

During the spring, there are pink and yellow foxgloves along the ridges

This old car smells like when we were kids road tripping

To Pennsylvania and West Virginia and to the Crybaby Bridge

[Verse 2]

The Vietnam Veterans Bridge crosses the ravine

You look out and all you see is serene green

Trees going on for days and days

South Lake Tahoe that way, Sacramento and San Francisco the other way

[Verse 3]

This car feels like it’s been livеd in

Like there havе been good times in here and all kinds of sacrilege

This car has so many miles, it’s been on so many pilgrimages

Who knows where it’s went and who knows where it's been?

[Verse 4]

This car reminds me of young road trips

Listening to Jimi Hendrix’s Rainbow Bridge

And Robin Trower’s Bridge of Sighs, the sun don’t shine, the moon don’t move

The way he bends his strings sounds like a scorned person crying

[Verse 5]

Tonight we’ll be crossing the Vietnam Veterans Bridge

On the way to San Francisco on Memorial Day, I should’ve been in Sweden or Norway

But things didn’t work out that way this May

It’s nice to be sharing time with you though, it’s nice to get away

[Verse 6]

Being around the house so much reminds me of being a kid

I know my way around the yard, every blackberry bush, every rosebush, every inch of my bedroom, every garbage can lid

Every fern, every flower, every tree trunk, every spigot

I knew a red squirrel named Fox, I knew an albino squirrel named Edgar, I knew a brown squirrel named James, I knew a black squirrel named Willis

[Verse 7]

And when we crossed the Vietnam Veterans Bridge

I think of the word Vietnam, I was born in 1967, I heard it every day until I was 11

My mom would drop me off in downtown Canton, Ohio to play chess

At a chess club, I’d be sitting there with Vietnam vet’s

[Verse 8]

I remember their army jackets and their Marlboro Red cigarettes

Though I was a kid, they treated me like an adult, they treated me with kindness and respect

I remember sitting on the cement steps California dreamin’

Waiting for my mom to pick me up and take me home

[Verse 9]

I was just a kid with a bunch of guys who looked like John Voight in Coming Home

And here I am on my roof looking at the Golden Gate Bridge

Reflecting on my life and all that has led me from those young road trips to this

Grateful for you, for with you, my life is blessed

I, remembering young road trips