This song began with the phrase "dead reckoning"
Cambridge Dictionary:"a way of calculating the position of a ship or aircraft using only information about the direction and distance it has travelled from a known point"
Replace "ship or aircraft" with most of us and that seems a good description of how we travel through life.
The title line I stumbled on from a travel website... not original, but fair game for an alert songwriter!

The Million Star Hotel

Style is _APPLES.STY (Apples Even-16 Americana Ballad)

RealTracks in style: 2877:Bass, Acoustic, AmericanaSlow16thsByron Ev16 060
RealTracks in song: 2667:Pedal Steel, Background DreamySingleNote Ev 075
RealTracks in style: 3159:Guitar, Baritone Electric, Rhythm AmericanaSlow16thsBrentFX Ev16 060
RealTracks in song: 3058:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking SongwriterAlternating8thsQuinn Ev 065
RealTracks in song: 2542:Pedal Steel, Background ModernBalladAtmosphere Ev16 065
RT 1596 Acoustic guitar
RealDrums [in style:AmericanaRoots16th^01-a:Toms, b:Snare
RT 3156 Fiddle5string
RT3023 vocal oohs
*******************



The Million Star Hotel

danger don`t go there
on charts you can`t rely
stay home hang a picture
in your little box of sky

sit by the window
in the land of watch and wait
for a ship sails back roads
as your breath on the glass fades

there`s that loner
leaning into the wind
try to read on his face
the map of all he`s seen
by dead reckoning he travels
under heaven`s spell
tonight he`ll sleep
in the million star hotel

doubt gives a last shiver
compass reads magnetic south
city folds around you
hold course through crowds

in a prairie night ocean
lost in wonder sea grass
a coyote circles
wild eyes on your trespass

there`s that loner
leaning into the wind
try to read on his face
the map of all he`s seen
by dead reckoning he travels
under heaven`s spell
tonight he`ll sleep
in the million star hotel

feel the motion
moving at the speed of hope
destination hidden
eye on the sky hand on the rope
by dead reckoning we travel
under heaven`s spell
all we know is we sleep
in the million star hotel

© Robert Cordrey Jan. 2020