While hauling stage equipment from town to town for public radio's A Prairie Home Companion, Russ Ringsak has seen some pretty amazing things--and some not-so-amazing things that just need a little embellishment. His commentaries from the road have appeared more or less regularly on the show's Web site for the past three years. Collected here are the best of those stories, plus many others never published before now.Not originally a trucker by trade, Russ at first lacked the requisite trucker attitude, making him a kind of hybrid--a semi driver in more than one sense of the word. His wry observations about the art of truck driving as practiced by a former suit-wearing office worker offer a unique perspective on Interstate America. Between these musings he tells of encounters with all kinds of characters--a man met at a bar in Billings who spent his childhood as a professional stunt baby, a soulful Atlanta trolley tour guide with encyclopedic knowledge, the owner of a one-footed bean-planting Muscovy duck named Matilda. Told in a homegrown philosopher's style reminiscent of Mark Twain, his stories are all true, although some are probably semi true--what you might expect of a semi driver. Read Less