So, today, my bike excursion to explore the bike trail options to Boucherville was thwarted by my first flat tire of the season about 7 km from home. My little hand pump is completely useless for blowing up these tires which need 100lbs pressure. So, I walked back a few km until I arrived at an Ultramar gas station where an air-pump was available at a cost of 50 cents which I didn't have. So, I asked the attendant if I might be able to purchase 50 cents with my debit card...after a thoughtful pause, he determined, that, yes, this would be possible. After pumping my tire, I was happy to note that a very young girl, accompanied by her mother, was able to take advantage of my purchased air time on the pump to inflate her little pinked rimmed tire as well. I was able to cover about 3 km towards home before my tire was completely flat again, but, fortunately, I only had to walk a few hundred meters to an Esso gas station whose pump required 1 dollar to activate. When I asked the attendant if I could purchase a dollar with my debit card, he told me that it was free for bikes...how nice of Esso! I was able to cover another 2 km before the next gas station, this one a Petro-Canada, which didn't have a pump at all...the attendent told me the proprietor of the station did not give her permission to install a pump...how odd is that? Esso has my business now!
