Gary,
Regarding "Blue Highways" by William Least Heat Moon, if you can't recover the copy you left for the squirrels (they bagged my shiny digital watch some years ago) the hardback book is available used for $4.00 at Half.com and new at Amazon for about $5.30, both plus shipping of course. The paperback costs just pennies. I have a fairly large private library made up of purchases from used book stores and discount Internet sources. Check out addall.com for a great book searching search engine.
"Blue Highways" is a great book, now 21 years since publication. It's about an America, defined by the two-lane highways connecting it, fast disappearing.
Even after two decades I still enjoy reading it again and again.
Professor Celtfire