Having to leave a vacation sucks. My uncle is heading out tomorrow morning, a day earlier than the rest of the crowd, and he asked me to make him a mix CD for the road.

As Mr. Burns might say with an ominous grin, “Eeeexcellent.”

I love mix CD assignments. For this one, I decided to indulge my OCD tendencies and create a driving playlist that follows the journey from North Carolina to his home state of New Jersey, with songs about the Tar Heel State, then the Old Dominion, then Whatever Maryland’s Nickname Is, then the Keystone State, and last but certainly not least, the Garden State. (This particular musical route does not include Delaware, not because that’s the route my uncle will be taking, but because I couldn’t think of a single song that mentions Delaware. My sincerest apologies to all of you from the Credit Card State First State.)

I have to confess that my iTunes library gets thinner the farther north we get, so the last few tunes were selected more for their writers than their lyrics. While the Internet connection is too crappy for me to assemble the entire playlist, I’ve included some of the highlights below for your enjoyment.

WARNING: Do not try to synch these songs up — a la Dark Side of Oz — with a drive from North Carolina to New Jersey. I’m pretty sure going 942.5 mph will get you a serious speeding ticket.

Ryan Adams — “Oh My Sweet Carolina” (live) [Spotify/iTunes]

Justin Townes Earle — “The Ghost Of Virginia” [Spotify/iTunes]

Counting Crows — “Raining In Baltimore” [Spotify/iTunes]

G. Love — “No Turning Back” [Spotify/iTunes]

Vampire Weekend — “I’m Going Down” (Bruce Springsteen cover) [Spotify/iTunes]