The 2014 Rock and Roller Tour!

Recently Kristi and I took a trip to Cleveland, OH for my 47th birthday, so I could see the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We dubbed the trip the 2014 Rock and Roller Tour, because it was partially spent at the Hall of Fame, and partially spent an hour away from Cleveland at Cedar Point Amusement Park, where we rode roller coasters all day. Based on some events that were happening Tuesday at the Hall of Fame, we decided that day 1 would be at Cedar Point.

It has been 21 years since I was on a roller coaster. It was Six Flags in St. Louis, while I lived there. For Kristi it had been since the mid-nineties before Opryland was torn down to make room for a mall.
So needless to say there was a mixture of excitement and nervousness about riding roller coasters all day at what is perhaps the greatest single location for roller coasters in the entire world, and for sure the USA. I did prepare before though by taking various meds and supplements that would keep any bodily fluid inside my body, that had the potential to violently exit my body while on a roller coaster.

We made the hour drive to Sandusky, OH where the park is, and made the game plan after getting in the gate and getting a park map. Our plan was to go all the way to the back of the park, and start there, working our way back towards the front as the day grew longer, and ending on the biggest roller coaster in the park. Our first two coasters were some of the old wooden ones, which were big fun, but man was it gut wrenching making the climb on that first one, for the first time in 21 years. It was great though and set a good tone for the rest of the day. In short, we rode 10 roller coasters that day and had a blast, screaming our heads off so many times going downhill at almost 90 degrees, or spinning upside down multiple times, or just the sheer speed at which some of them went. It was super fun and we felt like kids again the whole day as we went from roller coaster to roller coaster.  Our favorite one was the Maverick, but the big one at the end was the one we were the most scared of. It is the Millennium Force and has a top speed of 93mph. We had to keep psyching ourselves up about it, knowing it was coming. We came and conquered though and it was a blast. A FAST blast. Afterwards we drove back to downtown Cleveland where our super comfy hotel room awaited us, and after walking over 21,000 steps that day, were ready for some solid rest and sleep.

The next day was Rock & Roll Hall of Fame day, and unlike Cedar Point, the commute to the HoF was about 1 mile.  We got there right as they opened and spent the entire day there. As soon as you walk in, you see Trabants hanging from the ceiling which were part of the stage props and lights for the massive ZOO TV Tour that U2 did back in 1992-93, which I saw in St. Louis in ’92, just before riding a roller coaster the previous time. We got our tickets and headed downstairs to the widest and biggest part of the triangular shaped building.

Once there, we just started going through the exhibits that were most interesting to us, so that meant having to skip some things but still getting to see all the stuff, just not on the level of deeply experiencing all of it due to time. The main two things I wanted to see were the U2 exhibit and the RUSH exhibit. I got the former but not the latter, as they just took the Rush exhibit down to make room for the 2014 inductees. GRRRRRR. . .

Well, once I found that out, I had my moment of major disappointment and just moved on. There were lots of other great things about the HoF, like the massive Jimi Hendrix exhibit and the Gallery Talk done on him that we took time to listen to and ask our guide questions about. Tons of great memorabilia, and several things from concert tours I have seen like stage costumes from the PopMart Tour that U2 did in ’97, lights from the stage of the ’89 Steel Wheels Tour that the Rolling Stones did that I saw in Birmingham, AL, instruments from bands like REO Speedwagon, AC/DC, Van Halen, KISS and others that I fondly remembered. There were lots of listening stations that you could put on headphones at and get more info about favorite artists, as well as several short films spread out all over the building that you could watch on various topics. I could go on and on here, but instead, I will let the pictures I took tell the story, because I took A LOT. So if you want the visual record of our time from the Hall of Fame, go here and check out my photos.

I hope to go back someday when I know that there is a good sized Rush exhibit, and I hope to return to Cleveland at some point too, whether for that reason or others, because that is a city on the move and we were impressed with it, in all ways. They are embracing the 21st century and changing from an old factory town to a modern city, while still caring about old architecture etc. that has been around for so long. It was a brief but great visit.

This is a great long weekend get a way destination for anyone interested in music or the world’s best amusement park, but Cleveland has so much more than that to do—something for everyone from what I could tell in finding out other area attractions.