Day 28 – It’s all about the rock and the roll

Date: 06/29/2016 Wednesday
Starting Location: South Bend, IN
Ending Location: Cleveland, OH
Starting Odometer: 12,451
Ending Odometer: 12,724
Mileage Today:  273 Miles
Mileage Total:  5886 miles
Today’s MPG:  35 mpg (Once again, all of those miles on the Interstate affect MPG)
Total Average MPG:  41 mpg

Leaving South Bend

i got up early and found that Lee had made breakfast, including coffee.  Thanks Lee.  After a quick meal, and a 60 second cleansing of the windscreen, the bike was packed and ready to head out.  I left Lee’s place and headed out on the back-roads of Indiana.

Transportation questions…

I knew that i would want to walk around the museum, and it would take several hours to go through all of the exhibits.  The idea of wearing all of my gear as I walked around wasn’t too appealing, so I needed another plan.

As it turns out, the plan was simple.  I simply stopped at the hotel and checked in.  I removed all of my gear from the panniers, leaving the panniers empty.  I knew that I could then ride downtown, wearing all my riding gear so that I was safe, while also making easy to lock up the gear while I’m walking around.

I feel rock and roll in my veins…

As I approached the R&R museum, I could feel the energy begin to affect my mood.  I had been waiting for a long time to visit this museum.  As a long-time rocker, and as someone that loves Classic Rock, I could not wait to get into the museum, and get down to business.

What, no parking?

I was pretty surprised to find that there is no parking for the R&R hall of fame.  The museum will validate your parking ticket if you park in a near-by public garage.  The garage was only a block away, so I parked there, and changed into my more casual clothes.

Here we go

The walk to the musuem was only about  4-5 minutes, so I was there in no time.  I walked in, got in the ticket line and discoverd that the cost to enter was $24.  Once again, this is a bit more than I expected to pay, but I’m still optimistic that it will all be worth it.

I’m finally inside – What’s up with this?

I’m finally inside the museum, and the first thing that I noticed is that everything is cramped, and all exhibits are behind plexiglass.  Because the guitars, and other artifacts are behind plexiglass or acrylic, there are glare and reflections visible in just about every photo.  I took some pictures anyway, hoping that some of them will be interesting enough to be tolerable.

Ok, OK, but the museum is awesome, right?

Well, not exactly.  I found that the artifacts are pretty interesting, but just about anything that they tried to do that had to do with technology, or Audi/Video, was sub-standard.  The movies were either poorly produced, or had really low quality pictures.  As an example, there is a video that runs on a loop.  It shows excerpts and highlights from all of the groups that have inducted since the museum was started.  Given that the museum has only been around since1983, it’s hard to conceive that they wouldn’t have been able to get better video and pictures to use as the basis for this show.

There were about 4 or 5 movies playing, and at least 2 or 3 of them had proper seating, but the other movies were simply playing on TVs, where people were expected to stand around, in tight quarters, and try to tolerate the poor quality for several minutes.  Arghhh, who is running this place?

Pink Floyd – This should be great

There was a Pink Floyd exhibit that highlighted The Wall album.  it seemed to consist of several big, white bricks, with some writing on them, which appeared to be a diatribe from Roger Waters, expressing dismay about some of the fans that would interfere with some of their concerts.  Also included in the exhibit was a stuffed man, sitting in an old chair, watching a TV.  Perhaps this is in some way relevant, but I’m afraid that I just couldn’t see it.

Summarizing things

In the end, I would have to say that I would not recommend the R&R HOF to anyone.  I’ve heard that Paul Allens’ exhibit in Seattle is much better, more interactive, and of very high quality.  You can, of course, make your own decision, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

What’s in store for tomorrow?

Tomorrow is a travel day, where I