Today was a big day for us here at America in 100 Days. Today was Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Day. We woke up with a bounce in our step and huge smiles on our faces. We’re all huge classic rock fans so this was the one museum we planned on dedicating a whole day to.

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We wanted to eat before getting to the Rock Hall so we wouldn’t have to think about it while we were there and Tom mentioned that he had heard of a place called Slyman’s. He said we had to swing by for their famous corned beef sandwich so we followed his lead.

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When we arrived there was a line out the door so we hopped in and waited. Eventually we figured out it was just for take out so we squeezed past everyone and a thirty-something round waitress showed us to a table along the wall right near the counter. Joey and I ordered Reubens and Tom opted for one of the famous corned beef sandwiches.

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We all finished these gargantuan sandwiches but do you see the size of that thing? We definitely did not have to worry about being hungry after stuffing ourselves with these babies. This was the first and last meal for any of us all day long. After that we loosened our belts and headed for the Rock Hall. We were all super excited.

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Arriving at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is almost as thrilling as seeing all of the things inside. It is huge and oddly shaped with large windows and sky lights. Sirius Satellite Radio broadcasts from the top floor and the music emanates across the large circular brick patio outside. We pulled up with our faces pressed to the windows happily staring at the building and parked across the street. I popped quarters into the meter as fast as my hands could manage and we all but ran across the street (after looking both ways) toward the large glass doors leading to the lobby.
The building is bright and open inside. The first floor stretched out in front of us and our eyes darted between huge wildly painted guitars near the ticket counter and a section of The Wall with characters on top looking down at us from the floor above. I ran over to the gift shop for a post card and then we took the escalator down to the ground floor.


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We descended the stairs and came face to face with a round glass case filled with guitars from various artists, most notably to us were a few from Jerry Garcia (shown here). Along the back wall were a motorcycle of Bon Jovi’s and another of Billy Joel’s. Large portraits of Aretha Franklin, Mick Jagger and several other artists pulled us towards a hallway leading into the main exhibit room, but before we went too far in we hopped in line for a short film called the Mystery Train.
Mystery Train was a compilation of pictures, video, music and narration showing and telling the history of rock and roll. The film took us from gospel in the cotton fields of southern plantations to blues and the early days of country. Rock-a-Billy broke the mold and lead the way for Elvis to shake up the scene then The Beatles turned the whole genre on its head.


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Photo © Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
After the film we headed out all the more excited to see all the exhibits that filled the bottom floor and came first to a section in the room with large cases cut into the wall. These cases were filled with time capsule items like stage costumes, concert posters, records, band contracts and pictures that lead us through the progression of Rock. We wandered down the row looking into cases devoted to Motown and the Punk scene in London and the US. We walked by a case dedicated to the sixties and seventies and another for rap. There were videos above each case showing scenes from the era and artists performing. We each wandered slowly through this section and then spread out across the rest of the floor. 
A whole section in the corner was devoted to The Rolling Stones with several of Mick Jagger’s stage outfits and the band’s travel case covered in witty bumper stickers. There was also a corner display with Jimi Hendrix’s stage outfits and a wall full of his boyhood doodles on the backs of grammar worksheets. In another corner there was a picture of Jim Morrison’s gravestone covered in graffiti and beer cans as well as pages of his notebook with song lyrics scribbled across them.


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Photo © Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
I made my way slowly around the room and bumped into Joey. He told me to check out the middle of the room next where there was a raised platform filled with mannequins wearing famous stage clothing from George Clinton, David Bowie, Stevie Nicks and a ton of other artists. Joey was a fan of tie-dye footie pajamas and I couldn’t get over George Clinton’s long fur coat and giant top hat.
This bottom level is really the heart of the museum, everything you want to look at is down here. The three of us took our time wandering around really enjoying seeing everything there was to see, but there is so much cool stuff there listing it in my post wouldn’t do it justice. If you get the chance to come here don’t miss it. We had to pull ourselves away after two hours of wandering around so that we had time to see everything else.


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Photo © Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
One after another we jumped on the escalator and headed to the first floor. The large section of The Wall we had seen from the lobby loomed over us and a large balloon school master with a hideous face leaned over it. On the other side a letter written by Roger Waters detailed the mental anguish he had gone through which lead him to write the rock opera and “Pink” sat in an arm chair watching TV. On our way to the next floor Tom spotted the statues from Division Bell (also Pink Floyd) standing off to the side, and was extremely impressed. He made sure I mentioned it.
The next few floors had display cases with Rolling Stone Magazines and another had a whole section devoted to Allen Freed who was instrumental in the early days of Rock and Roll. We kept going up until we got to the floor with the actual Hall of Fame and watched a little bit of a video showing the inductees music videos and the year they were inducted. Exiting the video room leads you down The Hall of Fame which is literally a hallway. One wall is a long black board with neon yellow signatures of the inductees and crucial members of their management.


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Photo © Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
Up near the top of the building we saw the radio station where the Sirius Radio DJ was working her magic and on the very top level there is a small room. This room is the Rock Hall's main changing exhibit space. Up there now is a display devoted to Bruce Springsteen called "From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen." The room was filled with blown up pictures of his notebooks covered with song lyrics, several of his guitars, concert posters even a pair of his jeans.
After a long satisfying day here we had seen all that The Rock Hall had to offer so made our way to the exit. We walked off towards the car and the music flowing from the building called after us reminding us to plan a visit again someday.


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Now, as it happens today wasn’t just Rock Hall day, it was also the expected arrival day of our Featured Guest Traveler and Tom’s special lady, Bern. We were on the way to meet her in Pittsburgh but she wasn’t due to arrive until later that night so we had some free time to do some exploring. We decided to head over to the Cleveland Botanical Garden to have a nice walk.

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We pulled open the large glass doors and were met with smells of earth and flowers. We headed outside and wandered around all different types of gardens. The flowers were beautiful and cascading waterfalls splashed into little pools while the pathway lead us under wooden arches. There was a bride and her bridesmaids getting photographed in one so we tiptoed around them and headed onward.

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The Great Lakes Brewing Company wasn’t too far away so we zipped over for a quick tour. It was by far the most interesting tour we have had so far. They showed us all different facets of brewing from the inside of the mash tuns to under some of the barrels and the pellets of hops they use. In Ohio there’s a law that says you can’t give away alcohol for free so we paid a quarter for each taste we had. The names of the beers all have some kind of tie back to the brewery or the town, like their Burning River Pale Ale, which is named for the Cuyahoga River which was so polluted it burst into flames on June 22, 1969.
We had a great time here in Cleveland. It was a packed but very satisfying day. We hopped in the car and headed on down the road to meet up with Bern and get ready for a full day ahead of us in Pittsburgh.

Until next time America.

-Sarah




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