Can you carry a surfboard on a cargo bike?

In short, yes…wait, you said ironing board (surfboard for laundry) right?

The other night, I slid open our ironing board and what seemed like crumbled cement fell all over the floor. The material reminded me of an archaeologist play set that the little Prospects were playing with recently. The goal was to dig out and assemble dinosaur bones:

The ironing board cover was burned brown, the legs were missing the rubber end caps, and every time you slid open the darn thing, the screeching sound was loud enough to wake up the neighbours. So The Prospects needed a new ironing board. After a successful grocery run with my two boys, I was emboldened to turn it up a notch. Was the Edgy up to the task? My mission was clear: ride to Canadian Tire (a hardware store) and return with an ironing board (and the two boys… safely).

The Light Switch enjoyed driving the shopping cart and took his task seriously. “Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel…”

The ironing board we bought was unusually large. I haven’t been in the ironing board game for at least a decade now and was surprised that my choices were L, XL, or XXL:

The Light Switch wondering how the heck we were going to bring that thing home:

Before this adventure, I envisioned the ironing board sideways on the Edgy, parallel to the ground, and in between the foot rest and Hooptie. It was actually a lot more stable clipped in on an angle and bungeed down:

On the way home, The Light Switch was mesmerized by the beauty of an excavator:

The weight was nothing, but the ironing board acted like a sail on an untimely windy day. I snapped this one pretty quickly before rushing back to the bike:

I’ve read about the sense of accomplishment that people feel when they transport things, children, or both, on cargo bikes. Well, let me tell you, it’s real. I didn’t quite get it before. But hauling cargo on a bike gives you a psychological boost that I never expected when we made the decision to bike more and drive less.

Another unforeseen benefit was that it forced me to be deliberate with what I really needed to buy. Many a times I have come out of Costco with an unintended purchase (“ooh, that’s neat, I can use a 4-pack of that”). Even the mighty Edgy has a carrying capacity!

Buying an ironing board was supposed to be a mundane errand, but doing it on a bike made it super satisfying and fun. Who knew? I can’t wait to transform more mundane errands into adventures.

For more from The Prospects, visit www.prospectquery.com