PDX Magazine – Q&A with The Metal Cowboy

Got this today, an article about me, Camp Creative, our upcoming Canada ride, came out in JUNE PDX MAGAZINE – here’s the on-line version. And no, that’s not a wax figure of my ancestor, that’s me in the photo. I was going for the Clint Eastwood squint – that, and it was 7am, sun in my eyes and I’d been up for exactly 5 minutes.

PDX Magazine
On the Hot Seat

On the Hot Seat

with Tommy Gaffney
Photo by Chris McCollom

Joe Kurmaskie

He’s a writing enthusiast, a cycling enthusiast, an outdoor enthusiast and a parenting enthusiast. Heck, he’s an enthusiasm enthusiast. Joe Kurmaskie is out to rid the world of X-Box carpel tunnel syndrome, one youngster at a time.

I sat down with the Metal Cowboy (metalcowboy.com) at the Geospatial Conference at the downtown Hilton, where an hour earlier he had stolen the show. Between signing copies of his newest book, Momentum is Your Friend, Joe let me inside his world for a bit, and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same. His vibrancy was contagious and, frankly, left me exhausted, as if it was me who had ridden a bike across the country.

TG: Who is your biggest influence?
JK: I’m not a biker/writer; I’m a writer who happens to cycle. So some of my influences are Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, Chris Moore and even Ethan Canaan. I think half of being a good writer is being a voracious reader. All these guys look at the world and see beyond the curtain.They see the absurdity of it, but they still have to live in it. That’s where I live. This is my tiny species and I hate them sometimes and I adore them sometimes.

TG: Your newest book, Momentum is your Friend, documents a bicycle trip you took across the country with your two small children. What was one of the bigger obstacles you guys faced?
JK: Carrying 250 lbs. of kids and gear. There was no way to make the configuration a tandem or let the kids ride separate bikes, so this was the hardest thing physically I’d ever done. And I’ve done a lot, rode across Australia and New Zealand, 100,000 miles around the globe. This was the hardest physically, but emotionally, it was the most fun.

TG: How did the boys react to cycling or writing?
JK: Well, you know how an SUV driving republican will end up with a bike-riding liberal and vice-versa? Because I’m a bike-riding liberal, I tried not to force the bike on them. I never told them we were really riding across America; I said, “We’re just going for a Huck Finn summer. We’re going to go have some fun.” The key was I didn’t ride across America like a cyclist; I rode across America like a father and camp director. We got off the bike every chance we got. They never said “are we there yet” because we were always there. We took light sabers and digital cameras. We swam in every swimming hole and fished. Think of it as a father who wanted to give his kids a good time. We covered 80 miles a day, but it didn’t feel like it. One son took pictures of playgrounds across America and the other took pictures of dead animals. So we were stopping every chance we got.

TG: Rumor is you’re planning another trip. This time to Canada?
JK: That rumor is correct. We’re off to cross Canada on a sort of Bernstein Bears tandem. A four-seater with a trailer on the back because I have a third child now. Not Catholic, just careless. All of us are going. My wife and I met on the road. She’s an adventurer as well.

TG: From “Adventure Dad” and “Rolling Roads” to “Camp Creative” performances and school assemblies, you have a lot going on.
JK: I do. All of it synergizes, I hope. I’m writing a book and doing a TV show and hosting a camp that share a lot of the same philosophies. Who knows what’s going to happen, but it’s a blast.

TG: One last question. It is my firm belief that, legally, some people should not be allowed to wear spandex, what are your thoughts?
JK: I couldn’t agree more.