Three days east of LA
picked you up in my Chevrolet
it was suicide hitchhiking that way
it was your 18th birthday
and your daddy would have emptied his gun
if he knew half the things i'd done
me and his little girl on the run
drive into the rising sun
and I asked you "where you gonna go?"
lit a smoke and said you don't know
you're new life on the road
you were scared and it showed

chorus:
but who's to stop you, Mandy,
from coming to Carolina
come to caroline, mandy
come to caroline, mandy
come to caroline, mandy
with me

shared a bed in Tennessee
put my boot through a color tv
when you said you were leaving me
you had better things to see
and i know i ain't got one thin dime
and i've been prosing all your nursery rhymes
but pretty soon if we make good time
we'll be crossing that last state line

chorus

everything will turn out fine
if you come to caroline, mandy
with me

bridge:
you're a diamond
i'm a rusty nail
and I've been stepping on your fairy tail
at junction 40-23
and I wish that you would stay with me

chorus
everything will turn out fine
if you come to caroline, mandy
with me