{"product_id":"way-off-the-road-discovering-the-peculiar-charms-of-small-town-america-9780767922739","title":"Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small Town America","description":"\u003cp\u003eCelebrated roving correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning and bestselling author Bill Geist serves up a rollicking look at some small-town Americans and their offbeat ways of life.  In rural Kansas  I asked our motel desk clerk for the name of the best restaurant in the area. After mulling it over  he answered: Id have to say the Texaco  cuz the Shell dont have no microwave.  Throughout his career  Bill Geists most popular stories have been about slightly odd but loveable individuals. Coming on the heels of his 5 600-mile RV trip across our fair land is Way Off the Road  a hilarious and compelling mix of stories about the folks featured in Geists segments  along with observations on his twenty years of life on the road. Written in the deadpan style that has endeared him to millions  Geist shares tales of eccentric individuals  such as the ninety-three-year-old pilot-paperboy who delivers to his far-flung subscribers by plane; the Arizona mailman who delivers mail via horseback down the walls of the Grand Canyon; the Muleshoe  Texas  anchorwoman who delivers the news from her bedroom (occasionally wearing her bathrobe); and the struggling Colorado entrepreneur who finds success employing a sewer vacuum to rid Western ranchers of problematic prairie dogs. Geist also takes us to events such as the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival (celebrating an inspiring bird that survived decapitation  hired an agent  and went on the road for eighteen months) and Sundown Days in Hanlontown  Iowa  where the town marks the one day a year when the sun sets directly between the railroad tracks  Along the wacky and wonderful way  Geist shows us firsthand how life in fly-over America can be odd  strangely fascinating  hysterical  and anything but boring.  To say it very simply  freezer burn may very well have set in. neighbor on the frozen dead guy kept on ice in a backyard shed in Nederland  Colorado.  Everybody loves a parade; we were just geographically challenged. David Harrenstein  organizer of a parade in tiny Whalan  Minnesota  where viewers are in motion and the marchers stand still.  We havent lost anyone off these switchbacks in at least ten days Mailman Charlie Chamberlain  leading us on horseback 2 500 feet down the sheer walls of the Grand Canyon.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647086813237,"sku":"ByrdShop_0767922735","price":29.31,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780767922739.jpg?v=1781688432","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/way-off-the-road-discovering-the-peculiar-charms-of-small-town-america-9780767922739","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}