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    Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small-Town America
    Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small-Town America
    Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small-Town America
    Audiobook7 hours

    Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small-Town America

    Written by Bill Geist

    Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Celebrated 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: 'I'd have to say the Texaco, 'cuz the Shell don't have no microwave.'"

    Throughout his career, Bill Geist's 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 Geist's 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 19, 2007
    ISBN9781400174676
    Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small-Town America

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    Reviews for Way Off the Road

    3.5/5

    55 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      It’s unlikely anyone has visited more small towns than Bill Geist. His wry humor and ability to sniff out eccentric people engaged in oddball enterprises makes him highly qualified to write this book. And even though he pokes fun at people, they’re people who are poking fun at themselves and their world – plus the author does it with kindness and affection. Way off the Road is funny, engaging, eye-opening and a blast to read. I recommended it for inclusion in the reading list for the non-fiction readers’ group at my public library, and it was voted in by my fellow-members. A few members prefer more serious, somber tomes, so I’m interested to hear what they have to say about Way off the Road, if they read it and if they show up next month for our discussion. I believe it may engender conversation about the small towns we have visited and the “characters” we have met along the way. The first town included in Way off the Road is Whalan, Minnesota, home of the “standstill” parade – where the people in the parade remain in place and the parade-watchers get off their lawn chairs and walk around those who are standing still. That sets the tone nicely for the rest of the short essays. My favorite essay is Population: Elsie, set in Monowi, Nebraska, which has to be the smallest small town anywhere.Way off the Road is a book that had me smiling throughout, chuckling through most of it and laughing out loud quite a lot. It’s a fun read when more serious reading gets you down.
    • 4/5
      I give it 5 stars because I loved Bill on CBS Sunday morning but the book gets 3 stars because parts seem to be just notes not anything more and then it just ends. I expected some great summary of what he learned but I guess that wasn’t his point, which of course is fine. I just wish we still had more like him for CBS Sunday morning; they have lost touch with what makes small town America so amazing.
    • 4/5
      Bill Geist of CBS Sunday Morning travels to all kinds of entertaining small towns to share their quirky stories. Funny and never condescending, I really enjoyed this book. It makes me consider getting off the interstate and driving the back roads a little more to see just what I'm missing!
    • 5/5
      Loved this book. The funniest book I've read in a long time. I read this last summer and a lot of the characters remain in my mind--I can't recall specifially off the top of my head where they live--so I'd say this book is more about character rather than location.Loved reading about the cow stylist and photographer (she styles cows and photographs them for dairy magazines) and Mike the Headless Chicken and the small town that has an annual parade that doesn't actually move--the spectators are the ones who goes past the route instead. I haven't read any of his other books yet but certainly will keep my eye out for them now!
    • 4/5
      Funny stuff! Laugh out loud vignettes about quirky small towns and small town folks all over America. I was more than a little worried that my small town might be featured!
    • 4/5
      If you like to laugh, and you like Bill Geist, this is your book!