Book I'm Raving About

I just finished Mud, Sweat and Gears: A Rowdy Family Bike Adventure Across Canada on Seven Wheels by Joe "Metal Cowboy" Kurmaskie. I came across the Metal Cowboy in Bicycling magazine, which ran a featured article on his trip in an issue within the past few months. I logged the title into my iPhone notes (I love love love that feature) and made a point to pick up the book. I am so glad I did. Joe wrote the book, but his wife Beth inserts footnotes that are hysterical. I started the book on Thursday evening and laughed until I finished it last night. I highly recommend this book for anyone with a family and some athletic goals. Poor Greg had to hear me wax on about how I want to drag our family on a bike adventure around Mount Rushmore! As any good husband would do, he just nodded his head hoping this was just another one of my fleeting, wild adventures and that I would soon dismiss it. Honey, I'm serious :)

Joe takes along his 3 boys, one of which is still nursing and turns a year old on the trip. Joe leads a tandem with his 9-year old son Quinn and younger brother Enzo attached on a trail-along-bike. Bringing up the rear was Matteo in a tag-along while wife Beth joined on a bike all to herself. I loved being able to identify with Beth's lack of bike skill, yet her love for adventure.

A line I found laugh-out-loud funny was how Joe explained why Enzo sang so much on the trip. He wrote that the Trail-A-Bike rider (Enzo) "wears more of the road trip that anyone else...seems that when the world treats you like a rolling Jackson Pollack canvas, singing helps."

If you're thinking of a crazy family adventure that no one will forget, this is the book for you.