yeah, I agree. Tutorial and API alone is not enough. Rails is just a web dev framework in Ruby. so Ruby is must before even trying Rails.
I found that "The Little Book of Ruby" was very helpful in learning enough Ruby to be able to read Rails code. Then went to rubyonrails.org tutorial page and tried all tutorial there. And then went to Barns and Noble got Ruby Cookbook (couldn't wait 3 day shipping from amazon) and read chapter 15. Then finally I was able to consume Rails API documentation and have fun, having fun, of course I am happy.
It took me 3 weeks for this, with 2 kids and 1 wife screaming at you
all the time and full time work during the day. pretty good no? 
now I have to think about how to make living with Rails.