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Aug 15th 2012!⃝It might be my own personal experience that makes me see it this way, but I think another interpretation (possibly not deliberate on James Taylor's part) is that of the singer's "last words".
Beginning with the second verse:
"Dark and silent late last night"
The singer feels the stillness of death at his doorstep.
"I think I might have heard the highway call"
Clever wordplay here if you break up highway into 'high way' - the road to paradise.
"Geese in flight and dogs that bite,
Signs that might be omens, say I'm goin"
Both birds and dogs have associations with omens of death.
Then the bridge:
"With a holy host of others standing around me"
This line could mean either friends and family gathered around the dying, or an assembly of angels and the spirits of his ancestors descending on him.
"Still I'm on the dark side of the moon"
He's transported to a place that is mysterious and unfamiliar.
"And it seems like it goes on like this forever"
The vastness of eternity.
....
Then,
"You must forgive me.. if I'm up and gone to Carolina in my mind"
He asks his loved ones to forgive him for leaving them.
And then come the final lines:
"And I'm already gone"
"Say nice things about me 'cause I'm gone"
"Carry on without me 'cause I'm gone"
He asks the people who care about him to remember him fondly, and to try to carry on with their lives in spite of his death.
In that way, "Carolina in my mind" might mean either the singer's vision of paradise, or his last reminiscence of his beloved home right before his death.
Finally, there's lots of little stuff like
"The sky's on fire" - sunset
and how in both of the first two verses the author seems to be trying to impart a lesson. Perhaps some last words of wisdom?
