Pneumatique

On our way home we stopped for gas somewhere in the wilds of South Dakota. While I am at the register paying for a soda, a guy comes in asking for help with his tire. He's one of them furrin devils and his English isn't that great. He goes round and round with the cashier but they aren't getting anywhere so I step in and offer to help. I mean, it's a tire, how much of a problem can it be?
    He's got his family with him, wife and a couple of kids, in a Chevy Suburban pulling one of them pop-up travel trailers. The right front tire is the one he is concerned about, and it looks a little low. Pressure gauge confirms that it only has 17 PSI. The other tires are all around 44, so we pump this one up to the same value. We check the trailer tires, they are only about 35, but they are both the same, so I let him go.
    They're from France, he speaks English, but technical terms like 'air pressure' and 'tire gauge' are beyond him. He seemed unfamiliar with the air hose and the gauge, which makes me wonder what they use in France. Perhaps Michelin has come up with tires that never need to be pumped up, but they can't sell them in the US because of some fool congress critter trying to 'protect' somebody.
    It was late in the day and they were headed for Cedar Rapids, Iowa, about ten times further than we were planning on going this evening.