COEUR d’ALENE — Bologna, mustard, ketchup and onion sandwiches were the car trip food of choice when a young Garrison Keillor traveled with his family from Minnesota to see his Inland Northwest kin.

“I loved my relatives in St. Maries. They were country kids. And although they were fundamentalist Christians, as I was, they were looser, they were wilder. They drove tractors in high gear downhill. It was just exciting,” Keillor said, his audience beginning to roar. “And they liked to fool around with explosives. They would toss a cherry bomb into a chicken coop just to see big white leghorn chickens go berserk.”

It was wonderful visiting his country cousins in Idaho, he said.

“Coeur d’Alene, of course, was the fashionable city up to the north,” he said. “St. Maries was where people had a wild time and had all kinds of fun.”

America’s favorite storyteller, with his unmistakable radio voice and clever poetry and song, performed with the Coeur d’Alene Symphony on the stage of a sold-out Schuler Performing Arts Center on the North Idaho College campus on Saturday night.

More than 1,140 people turned out to see Keillor, who created and hosted “A Prairie Home Companion” radio variety show for more than 40 years.

The symphony, conducted by Maestro Jan Pellant, was in perfect harmony with Keillor’s words and humor as he spoke and crooned of everything from pristine flowers to comical or unfortunate encounters.

He directed the mood from lighthearted to reflective to grateful as he and the musicians hit all the right notes with their guests. Keillor was also accompanied onstage by long-time “Prairie Home Companion” pianist Richard Dworsky.

“I retired from radio when I was 74,” Keillor sang. “I stood up and walked out the door. I’m busy, I’m OK, but yet I, oh I miss you folks more and more.”

Sometimes, even without inviting audience members to sing along, they gladly did.

“Well, the world should belong to the young, so get out of the way,” he sang as the piano played. “I know I’m old, and yet, I still have some things to say. That’s why I came here today.”

The symphony members — or rather, their instruments — took friendly ribbings from Keillor, each section and instrument playing it up as he described the heavenly harp, the bluesy piccolo and cartoonish bassoon.

Audience members of all ages delighted in the performances of the evening. Dan Monaghan of Coeur d’Alene has been a fan of “Prairie Home Companion” for 15 years and has always wanted to see Keillor in person.

“I finally got tickets for my birthday this year and I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “He’s kind of a Mark Twain sort of writer. I think he’s a good representation of that American storytelling that’s very rural and folksy and charming, of course. I really appreciate his understated wit.”

Keillor donated his time and talents to support the symphony, which is a nonprofit organization that relies on volunteers and sponsors to continue its mission: “To harness the power of excellence in music to educate our future generations, impact the health and well-being of our at-risk populations, and fortify the communal culture of our overall social network.”

Board treasurer Ed Bejarana said having Keillor perform with the symphony for the community was “absolutely dynamite.”

“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “The fact that he paid to get here on his own dime, he’s not charging us for the performance, it’s just amazing. He has such a name draw. We’ve been overwhelmed by the number of people who wanted to come and see him.”