Momentum Is Your Friend: The Metal Cowboy and His Pint-Sized Posse Take on America (Hardcover)

~ Joe Kurmaskie (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"As Melville is to the sea, MarkTwain to the raft, and Kerouac to the car, Kurmaskie is to the bike." -- —Andrew Lewis Conn, Author of P and The Last American Novel

"Give Huck Finn a bicycle, give Lance a sense of humor, give Kerouac a good editor and you have Joe_Kurmaskie." -- —Tom Lang, author of Coffee, Cat, and Mrs. Claus

"Intimate, ironic, worldly, wise, and most of all, fun. It reads like a wild, downhill ride with lots of switchbacks." -- —Robert Ferrigno, author of Prayers for the Assassin and Horse Latitude

"Joe Kurmaskie rolls with a keen sense of comedy and a big heart." -- —Christopher Moore, author of Lamb, Fluke and A Dirty Job

"Kurmaskie treats us to a reader’s trifecta: a humorous travelogue, a stirring adventure tale, and a touching family story." -- —Bart King, author of The Big Book of Boy Stuff

Product Description

Most people bring their inner child on an epic adventure. Joe "Metal Cowboy" Kurmaskie actually took his two kids along. For a 4,000-mile bicycle ride across America, Joe’s seven-year-old son, Quinn, rides a tagalong bike attached to his dad’s; and behind that is five-year-old Enzo in a bike trailer.

Our hero the Metal Cowboy answers the question "What are you, crazy?" with a resounding and cheerful "Yes." Unassisted—with no support crew except his boys’ comic relief and the periodic kindness of strangers—he pedals hundreds of pounds of gear and offspring over mountain passes, across the wide plains, through thunderstorms, and into the heart of what it means to be a dad.

Along the way they encounter everything that makes up America—small-town kindness and inner-city heart, wild horses and highway roadkill, a bitter Vietnam vet and a hopeful young inventor, grizzly bears and bison roaming free, cyclists and monstrous RVs, a very peppy cheerleader and a visitation from the ghost of the author’s father, horrible traffic and serene dirt roads, a monastery and a distillery, baseball, and yes, lots of pie.

By the time they reach Washington, DC, two months after leaving Portland, Oregon, they’ve bonded in a rare way. Kurmaskie writes, "We share a secret, the three of us; one permanent summer in our hearts now, where we’re never apart."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 318 pages
• Publisher: Breakaway Books; First Edition (stated) edition (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891369652
• ISBN-13: 978-1891369650
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #42,060 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Would Joe Kurmaskie Do?, October 5, 2006

By	Peter Weiss "weiss107" (Lake Oswego, Oregon) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is my favorite Metal Cowboy book because here we get to see the real Joe. He takes his boys on a bike ride across the US and does a lot more peddling than he ever thought. While the narrative about this feat is hysterical, it's the experiences that he shares with his family that makes this special. His boys become his audience and he theirs. It works becuase he's an entertaining writer and character. Let's face it. How could anyone who quotes from "Say Anything" and creates his own What Would Lloyd Dobler Do (WWLDD) T-Shirt for the trip not be great?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aluminum, Titanium or Steel, this Cowboy is for real!, January 4, 2007

By	D. D. Gabrielson "d2g" (USA - Navy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read 30-40 books a year, mostly non-fiction. This is easily one of my favorites in a very long time. If you like Bill Bryson's travel stories, you'll love Joe Kurmaskie's style of self-deprecating humor coupled with his observations about people and places along one hell of an adventure. I first saw the story when it was an article in Men's Journal in 2005, half-convinced that no one in their right mind would do something this hard. I'm sure my reaction was pretty much right in line with countless others; when I read, or should I say devoured, the book over a year later, I couldn't help but think that Joe knows something that most of us forget or perhaps never learn, that life is meant to be experienced fully, as opposed to taking it in small nibbles when it's convenient. We all underestimate our potential. Quinn and Enzo are the heroes who teach the real lessons in this story - they will totally amuse and challenge your imagination of what can be accomplished at any age. Joe gave me a fresh set of ideas on being a father, and it certainly made me think about my own dreams in new ways. Now where did I put that light saber...?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Inspiring Adventure, December 7, 2006

By	Larry Parker (Cincinnati, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

I am a big fan of the "Metal Cowboy," his books, website, and his postings to Touring@Phred. This book is his best as far as I am concerned, and it has my 9 year old son hooked, too. We have done some overnight tandem trips, but as we read about Joe, Quinn and Enzo on their adventure, Evan is warming to the idea that we need our own adventure. Hopefully we will be setting out for Grandma's house (500 miles) this June. Not quite the cross country adventure the Kurmaskies undertook, but if we have half the fun they had, or half the fun we have had reading about their fun, it will be a grand time.
Thanks, Joe, (and Posse) for helping inspire Evan, and me, to take the next step and extend our range. I hope others read it, enjoy it , and benefit as much as we have.