10/4, Good Buddy

Standing out here on the open road with my thumb pointing toward gone, I'm reminded that it was exactly one year ago today, on a day just like this one, that I saw the worst accident I ever seen... Wait, no, that's not right. Today is 10/4--exactly one year ago today I posted a trucking song on this blog in honor of Good Buddy Day!

That means it's time once again to hitch a ride with a ghost, or in this case four ghosts: the members of country music supergroup The Highwaymen. "Highwayman" was the group's biggest hit and essentially their theme song, in which Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Cash each portray the ghosts of different traveling men over time, from Wild West days to space travel. 

Each verse ends with an assurance that the man is still living on past his untimely death. Johnny Cash gets the last, most powerful verse, in which he imagines what he might be when he returns--another highwayman? A single drop of rain? Now that we've actually lost two of the Highwaymen, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, I like to think Cash's verse is prophetic. The world will be a much better place if those two keep coming back again, and again, and again...