“Meet the new guide on the lonesome highway. Poe Ballantine’s wry voice, clear eye, hilarious accounts, and lyrical language brings us up short by reminding us that America has always been about flight, and for most of its citizens it has been about defeat. His wanderings, drifters, bad motels, cheap wine, dead-end jobs, and drugs, takes us home, the home Betty Crocker never lived in. We’re on the road again, but this time we know better than to hope for a rumbling V-8 and any answers blowing in the wind. The bus has been a long time coming, but thank God it has arrived with Mr. Ballantine aboard.” Charles Bowden, author of Blues for Cannibals and Blood Orchid.