Day 56-57 (July 19-20th) – I love Rock and Roll!

A slightly disturbed sleep last night, the RV park we were staying at on the shore of Lake Erie had a power cut so we didn’t get to sleep til v late as we had to rig up our own generator and then switch it back again when the power retuned in the early hours of the morning!  We decided to have a bit of a lie-in to try and gain a few more hours shut-eye after the chaos.

Once up we got cracking and went on our way!  We had about a 3.5 hour drive to Cleveland so not too strenuous after our big day yesterday in Niagara Falls (btw Niagara Falls was amazing, we went on the Maid of the Mist boat as close as boats can get to the falls – which is pretty close and you get drenched!  We also walked in tunnels under the actual falls and got to see the water gushing from standing within the rock face tunnel behind it - fab day seeing a fab sight I’ll never forget!). 

After only about half an hour we accidentally took a wrong turning and ended up near a small beach alcove, the sun was shining so spur of the moment we threw on our swimming costumes and went for a dipJ  The water was amazing, although it looked like the sea as there was water as far as the eye could see - it was in fact a lake - “Lake Erie” one of the great lakes!  If I was still doubting that surely this must be the sea then the warmer water and fresh unsalted taste of it soon left me in no doubt that Oli was right and yes this was actually a lake!!

After a couple of hours of fun and splashing about we dried off and had a picnic, it was a perfect unplanned afternoonJ

By the time we got back on the road it was 3:30pm and we still had 3 hours to drive, the only reason we were wanting to go to Cleveland was to go to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  We wouldn’t get there til at least 7pm as we also needed to stop for gas along the way and by then the place would be closed.  We checked the guide book and sure enough the museum closes at 6pm except on a Wednesday when it’s open til 9pm – today was Wednesday, hurray we would make it after all!!

Sure enough we got there with a couple of hours to spare after having problems trying to find parking.  With my rock Kiss t-shirt on (another purchase in Florida) we headed to the museum.  The museum is set on the waterfront in the heart of downtown Cleveland, the iconic glass building in the shape of a pyramid was just how I’ve seen it on tv many a time.  

Inside, the spacious modern building has 6 floors with various rooms and spaces to display the memorabilia; unfortunately as we arrived so late we had to skip things like the U2-3D 1.5 hour show.  Another thing we had to miss out was the Inductees hall of fame film – if you watched all the films they were showing it would have taken about 8 hours, you could easily spend two days in there!

The museum takes you through the history of music and its influences, the journey featured a lot of stories and places we have actually come across on our travels here in the States like Memphis’ Sun Studios for example.  Although the museum was heavy on American music it does pay homage to the British invasion with the likes of the Beatles, The Stones, The Who, and David Bowie to name a few.

The memorabilia (no photography allowed!) varies from stars’ automobiles, instruments, costumes, lyrics, programmes, tickets etc and is nicely displayed mainly behind glass but there is a section unglassed.  Seeing things like Michael Jackson’s red torn Thriller jacket and a sparkly glove so close made me wanted to reach out and touch it – I would have done but the security guy was watching us like a hawk!!  

The two hours flew by but we did manage to get a good feel for the place and go to every floor, my only fear was it was now 9pm closing and I hadn’t got to the gift shop!  Luckily the gift shop stays open til 9:30 so we were able to buy a magnet and postcard as our own memorabilia…..I would have liked John Lennon’s original Sergeant Peppers outfit but you can’t have everything eh!

Today was one of those days that simply worked out perfectly and time was on our side….sometimes there’s just not enough hours in the day but it’s what you do with them that counts!

J&O