From the recording Homecoming
Robert wrote this travelogue while driving through eastern West Virginia, about a river that goes underground and comes up in the next county with a different name. Hello to our friends in Wardensville!
Lyrics
Ridin’ down route fifty five
Seems to be asleep,
Change your name at Wardensville
Playin’ hide and seek
Wandrin’ around like a drunken man
Who goes from town to town,
Never walks a straight line
Never settles down
Children of the river bank,
When they go to bed
Dream about your caverns,
Wondering where they led
The sons of Tuscarora
And the sons of mountaineers
Have disappeared into the earth,
Left behind their tears
Sparkling cool in the summertime
Grasses swing and sway
The otter and the bobcat
All meet you on their way
Do you know something no one knows,
What will come to be
River Lost, what do you see
River Lost, where can you be?
Highway cuts the land in two,
The native man is gone
Windmills on the ridge do work
Miners once had done
Do you see the lakes the men have made
That swallowed up my home
Do your lost ears even listen as the changes come along
Sparkling cool in the summertime
Grasses swing and sway
The otter and the bobcat
All meet you on their way
Do you know something no one knows,
What will come to be
River Lost, what do you see
River Lost, where can you be?