Fast Lane West

I was twenty years old and looking for a job, took the fast lane west out of Omaha

With a three-legged blue tick hound on the shotgun side

I heard there was work on the southern border and the weather sounds nice down in old Sonora

So one day I loaded up and took a little ride

I stopped a few times along the way to see if I could find a decent place to stay

But all that I could find was trouble every place I’d go

Too much beer and too much whiskey and hangin’ around was lookin’ might risky

So I thought that it was best to keep my tires rolling down the road

It was getting pretty late or maybe early in the morning when I started picking up a funny kind of warning

On my dashboard cross-band two-wave ham radio

I figured there was trouble with my new transceiver, given I was just a young and amateur operator

But I tuned in as best I could to what was being told

Said “Anybody out on interstate eighty, if you’re anywhere west of the town of Brady,

You best listen close to what I say

“Cause there’s two big rigs and they’re racing ‘cross Nebraska hauling pipe tobacca out of south cackalacka

And if you’ve got any sense you’ll get out of the way”

“Cause he’s holding close and he keeps on fighting and I’ve got a full two weeks’ pay riding

Got no intention of slowing down

But if you just put here steady on the center line and we come by on either side

It’ll be all too easy to cruise right around”

Well that sounded like the kind of thing I’d hate to interrupt and besides you can’t make that kind of shit up

So I put my rig right over on the double line

You know that I could hardly believe it myself when I heard the engines moaning like a bat out of hell

And I saw those double headlights coming from behind

There was one on the left shoulder, one on the right, with the hammer down and holding on tight

You could feel ‘em shakin’ as they’re rolling by

And then they were gone just as fast as they came and if you’ve got any sense you’ll get out of the way

‘Cause won’t nothing come between those boys and that state line

I figured there’d be a pretty high percentage that I’d come upon them in a pile of flaming wreckage

But I never saw another soul for the rest of that night

That kinda scheme struck me kinda desperado but if they burned out it was somewhere in Colorado

So ten-four good buddies, I’ll see you on the other side