As you say, it is best to learn the Ruby language itself. Depending on your personality, you may or may not enjoy the classic "Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby" (
http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/).
After that,
http://rubyonrails.org is a good place to jump from.
I am also a programmer of over 25 years, and I fell in love with Ruby about four years ago.