I decided to spend a few days at the beach, which is about 2 hours away by car. Packed up and headed out. About an hour into the drive my car said it sensed low air pressure in one of the tires. I’ve gotten this ‘alarm’ if the tires are just low (like with temp changes). I took my hands off the wheel to check if the car was veering at all and it wasn’t, so I figured I’d wait til I got to the beach to check the air in the tires.
Got to the beach, settled in and relaxed until I went to get take out for dinner. Decided to deal with the tire(s) the next day.
So, next day, I really got into this painting I was working on (there will be a separate post on it once I show the recipient) so I didn’t get around to going to get air until the afternoon. At the beach there are 3 gas stations in close proximity to where I was – Wawa, Exxon, and Royal Farms. I started to go to Wawa but then I heard “go to Royal Farms” in my head. Going to Royal Farms would avoid any traffic lights, so, I thought, okay I’ll go there.
Pulled in and decided to get gas while I was there. They have that radio frequency thing on the pumps so you can do touchless payment. I held the card up, got blinking green lights, and then the pump said I had to insert the card. Well, okay. Did the quick insert-remove thing that most pumps have. Then, I got transaction cancelled. What??
So I waited til the pump cycled thru the transaction loop and stuck my card in again. And then I couldn’t get it out!! I thought, oh man my card must’ve gotten hacked now what do I do? But, it turns out that the pump requires the card to stay in the thingie until the transaction is over. Really?? I didn’t think that was a thing anymore!
Anyway, got the car filled up and went over to the free air pressure pump. Somebody was there so I waited my turn. Checked the front driver tire – pressure was around 21.5 psi but should’ve been around 37. Stuck the air thing on the valve, and it sounded like more air was escaping than entering. Checked the pressure again. 18. Uh oh!
Tried again, no dice. Checked the pressure again. 15! Really uh oh!
I saw some hispanic guys hanging out by their truck so walked over to see if one of them could help me. I asked the one guy outside the truck if he could help with my tire, in english. He didn’t seem to speak english, so I asked the guys in the truck if they could help – this time in Spanish (I’ve been learning Spanish with the Duolingo app for 943 days in a row!) In perfect english the guy said – “yeah! Just give me a minute!”
He came over and pushed the button on the machine (which started it to compress the air – I had thought it was a call button). The machine sounded like it started up. But when he went to fill the tire, it still sounded like air was escaping. We checked, and now it was down to 10!! He suggested we check the back tire, which he did, and then he said “You have a nail in your tire!”
So, it turned out good that I went to Royal Farms instead of Wawa because I’m not sure I would’ve found the nail – good thing my amigo did!
Anyway, we figured out which was the ‘bad’ tire but I still had a good tire I needed to fill. So, I headed over towards Wawa. As it turns out, Exxon and Wawa share the same entrance off the road. But Exxon was closest to the entrance so I decided to go there. Found the machine and pulled up. $1.25 (Royal Farms and Wawa are both free)
I was standing there trying to decide whether to drive over to free Wawa or dig around for 5 quarters. As I was standing there, a truck pulled up with a man and woman. The man said “pretty expensive, eh?” and I said “yeah – I got burned over at Royal Farms by their air machine.” He did too. Then he said, “well, I only have to fill 2 tires so you’re welcome to however much air is left when I’m done.” I thanked him and he started to put his money in the machine. Then he said, “take your cap off now so you don’t waste any air.” Good point.
Anyway, he finished up, handed me the air nozzle, I started filling up my really low tire and wouldn’t you know the money in the machine ran out right when my tire hit 37 psi!
I went home, found a tire place, made an appointment and took the car in first thing the next morning. Sat outside in my lawn chair while I waited.
A little less than an hour waiting (there were quite a few people ahead of me), and I was good to go. Here’s the culprit:
I told a few people that I know around the beach area what happened and they all said the place I took my car to was the best place around for that. Thanks Yelp! for that bit of help.
Allrighty then. Sorry it’s been so long since I posted. Didn’t have much to write about, but I’m thinking I’ll do another post soon about some good books, TV show, and movies I’ve been reading / watching. In the mean time – thanks for checking in! Hope you’re all doing well! Talk soon!