We made it to Ohio and our first stop- the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame

 We drove into Ohio in the rain and we knew it was forecast to pour for our first day so we scheduled an inside activity - Music. 

We had been watching the weather and were smart enough to purchase our tickets to the Rock N Roll Museum several days in advance. Because it was a Saturday in July we knew it would be crowded. Tickets are for entry very half hour. We decided to get there early - 10:30 - so we could stay and enjoy the place. 

We have tried to stay close to points  of interest and then just drive our jeep to the places we really want to see. There are not a lot of RV parks near Cleveland so I picked a spot on the west side of the city. We had an hour drive to get to Cleveland and Ohio is big on toll roads. Thanks to GPS we can usually navigate around tolls. 

We had to drive though POURING RAIN to get there. Then there is no on site parking. You can park about two blocks away by the science center and then walk - which we did - but we got pretty wet.  

The building was designed by IM Pei.  It is meant to look like a record player from above. Inside, each of its floors gets progressively smaller as you move up in the building.  Floor “0” is where all the cool stuff is. It contains all kinds of memorabilia from all types of rock music. Some is organized by bands with large exhibits for Elvis, The Beatles, The Who and Jimi Hendrix. 

Then there are sections based on cities - Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York …The one overarching feeling I had was - overwhelmed.  There is so much to take in you could easily spend 3 hours on this floor alone. It reminded me of the Louvre before they moved some of the paintings. Below is a sampling of some things we saw. 

 

Our hometown mentioned for early punk rock contributors:

Jim Morrison’s Cub Scout uniform:

ZZ Top’s guitars:

And A Lady GAGa outfit - because it has typewriter keys  incorporated into the design:

There also lots of guitars. Way too many to capture. 

My favorite exhibit on the “0” floor was a recap of Super Bowl performances.  It was amazing to see what goes into the 8 minute performances. The best was the Prince performance during pouring rain in Miami. The producers were afraid that with his four different electric guitars he might be electrocuted.  He insisted on going on to play “Purple Rain” in the deluge. It went off without a hitch. 

The other floors house, cafeteria and gift shop, a really cool garage band floor where anyone can pick up an instrument (really nice instruments) and form a band with other visitors, rock out all alone or lay down tracks with sound boards and computers; a floor dedicated to recent inductees, theaters that were closed due to Covid and finally the top floor which had live interviews with various guitar players - including Eddie Van Halen and Keith Richards. It is a great place for those who love all forms of rock music. 

My one big problem with this venue was the “COMPLETE”

lack of Covid protocols. They did not limit attendance. Timed entry did not do anything to reduce the crowds. In some areas you were more packed in than at a rock concert in a small venue. I would say 10% of visitors were wearing masks.  Very crazy how differently various tourist spots deal with Covid. Many National Park locations - especially those where you visit a residence (e.g., presidential birth places) - limit tours to 6 people per hour and you have to have a reservation or you don’t get in.)