Day 2-177 in Cape May

The service technician arrived about 9:30 am to examine the leaking hydraulic cylinder on the steering system. As expected, his recommendation was to purchase a new one rather than to rebuild the old one for a second time. The rebuilt one had lasted about 4,500 miles, but there was a lot of labor involved, which offsets part of the cost of a new one. Of course, they did not call back to say whether they had found one locally or had to order one... Good thing that we have no itinerary!

We set off for downtown Cape May on out electric bike/scooters about 11:00 am. It was about 1.5 miles to the Washington Mall. The mall consists of a three block stretch where the street has been removed to make a pedestrian mall that is lined with old buildings. The area has many fine Victorian homes. Some are owner occupied, but many of the larger ones are bed and breakfast places. Most of the homes were in excellent condition.

We went into several of the stores, and then chose Tisha's Fine Dining for lunch. I chose my usual staple of a Caesar salad with grilled chicken. It was a good choice as the salad was the best that I have had in quite a while. That adds up since I seem to have 4 or 5 Caesars a week.

After lunch with lots of dark clouds to the south, we rode about 3 blocks east to the beach along the Atlantic Ocean. There we passed a number of real Victorian Mansions (examples in picture at left). Once again, many of them have been converted into hotels/bed & breakfast places. Also, several of them were selling condo units with the idea that many/all of the units would remain in a rental pool. Anyway, it made for a spectacular setting with the ocean in front.

Speaking of great views, this is a picture of the large beach along Cape May at this location. We did not venture into the water, but according to the TV weatherman, the ocean temperature is up to 54F. The ocean provides a nice natural air conditioner with temperatures well inland today that were as much as 20F warmer than Cape May.

Tomorrow we should have more news about the timing on the steering repairs...