Day 6

Greetings from Canton, OH. Today was a day off as far as baseball was concerned. (In fact, Ed just mentioned to me a moment ago that we "didn't even get to see one baseball game today." When I tried to console him with an offer of watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN, he gloomily remarked that there "were only like five games today anyway." All I could do was tell him to hang in there. As I write this, I think he's headed off to the car to locate the vodka.) Anyway, as I was saying, we had a couple of streaks broken in Cleveland. Each stadium had gotten better and better--until Cleveland. Each day of baseball was more enjoyable than the last--until Cleveland. Even the streak of having plenty of time to check out the stadium before the game was broken yesterday. (And don't even get me started on our horrible luck tracking down a place to stay last night. I bet there are fewer hotels per capita here in Cleveland and the surrounding 'burbs than any other metropolitan area. But it's not like that streak of good luck just ended yesterday--we did cross the Michigan-Ohio border twice Saturday night to find a vacancy...) Don't get me wrong, yesterday was still a decent day. But at the approximate midpoint of our journey, a little change was a good thing for us today.

With no game until tomorrow night in Pittsburgh, all we had on our agenda was visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. After sleeping in until a reasonable time (as per our custom on this trip) we set off for the Hall. I had heard great things about this museum and was really looking forward to it. While I must admit I was slightly disappointed in a hard-to-define way, it was still really cool. There are five or six floors of exhibits documenting the history of rock and roll, from Robert Johnson to Pearl Jam. Besides the multitude of music artifacts, there were several interactive kiosks featuring music, documentaries, interviews, and other video clips. I'm not going to try to list all of the cool things I saw. But name another place you can see ZZ Top's Eliminator car, Michael Jackson's Thriller mask, Les Paul's early electric guitar prototypes, and a handwritten setlist from a 1980 New Order concert. To sum it up that way makes the museum sound lame, but hopefully it gives you an idea of the scope. The funniest display sign I saw read "Brian May's Tunic, c. 1972." (Oh, the crazy rock stars and their fashion.) My two favorite parts were the Jimi Hendrix exhibit, where I stood and listened to demo tracks and live recordings for about 25 minutes, and a kiosk featuring a series of interviews of Les Paul, in which he discussed the early versions of his electric guitar. While I listened to the latter, Ed patiently made two trips around the second floor before finally tapping me on the shoulder and giving the "wrap it up" sign.

My two minor complaints were: (1) I thought it would be a bit bigger, and (2) parts of it were a little outdated. I'm sure it's nearly impossible to continually update the exhibits, but you could tell when an exhibit was put together in 1995 and overemphasized artists from, say, 1992-1995. But all in all, it was enjoyable. It's a must-see for any music fan. I'm even looking forward to another visit. Four hours turned out to be plenty for us today, though, since we were exhausted and starving (after a small breakfast and a skipped lunch).

After that, we semi-seriously wandered around downtown Cleveland looking for a cool place to hang out, eat, or just get out and walk around. But we ended up heading back towards our hotel to have some dinner at what turned out to be a pretty good Italian place. Then we decided to head for Canton. Tomorrow we'll hit the Pro Football Hall of Fame on our way to Pittsburgh.

There are two pictures after the jump...



Look, kids. It's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:


And it's Ben, about to get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (by paying admission). All over Cleveland, there are decorated guitars like the one shown here. [Photo by Ed.]