Dippin in the Dub through the Rocky Mountains today.

Boulder, CO to the Utah state line via the mountain pass! pics to come!!

Denver @ Night

Kansas is beautiful!

 

 

IL to CO...Via KC, MO!

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

Downers Grove, IL

 

  

  

 

 

Pics from traveling midgets.

 

Sunrise over Chi-Town.

 

This is what goes down in Kentucky...and that's it!

Pictures From the Road.

Headed out of Asheville towards Tennessee 

where beautiful views such as these are abundant.

The Story Begins...

It was a time in each of our life’s were we needed to make a decision about truly taking life by the horns and wrestling it down to the ground.  When I say we I am speaking of me and one of my best friends of my life ever “B”.   B always has looked out for me in many ways before and was currently facing some life struggles of his own and wanted to embark on a journey cross country to DeFiNe HiMsElF, and also take his clothing company DeFiNe InC to the next level.  It was around 5:30pm on a Wed evening when I got the call, I answered and said hello and B responded “how long will it take you to pack and be ready to go cross country to California hitting every major city along the way?” I replied about an hour.  So our mission to DeFiNe OuRsElVeS began…

We departed Cary, NC around 8pm wed night and our 1^st stop was in High Point, NC for a overnight visit with B’s family, and then we woke early and headed to Asheville, NC to take in some nature to clear our minds and prepare us for what was to come.  See we had made arrangements quite well for a trip that was planned in a matter of hours, we had sent out email messages, networking site messages and made phone calls to contact as many people that we knew Nationwide that may had been able to assist us in our journey.

We arrived into Asheville around 4pm and began the ascent towards the top of Black Mountain.  Black Mountain is nestled right in the beginning of the NC foothill Mountains, and is located about 20 minutes from Asheville.  B had arranged for us to stay with a great guy he knew named Karl.  Karl was a biochemist with many life experiences and great knowledge of this vast world we live in that B and me needed to wrestle to the ground.  After being in the Kamp Karl preserve for nothing but just a short 30 minutes I already knew why B had chose this to be one of our first stops on the long journey we had in front of us.  Karl’s house was built by himself, his brothers, and his father when he was younger and then was past down to him after age had ran its course as it does in all lifetimes.  This house was absolutely amazing and was designed for music to play a major role throughout the house.  The acoustics were set so that you could hear music played anywhere in the home.  

 B and I began the day by setting up our campsites located next to the guest cabin located on Karl’s property and headed into town to take care a few errands that needed to be tackled before we departed Asheville.  That day there was a talk around the house about a magical banana bread that was supposed to be taken apart of later in the evening.  Karl knew some really great guys that were originally from Ukraine and had lived in the states for twenty years already because they had moved here at a young age with parents.  We spent the night conversating with Karl and his daughter waiting on the phone call to head to the two Ukrainians house to have a great end of evening experience.  We headed down the mountain and showed up over to the house later that night Karl ended up falling asleep and didn’t manage to make it with us.  

 As we arrived handshakes and cold beverages welcomed us and so the night began.  Alex was the only one at the house at the time, Alex was the younger of the two brothers and said his brother had left to get groceries to make the banana bread and pick up his girlfriend from work.  We talked about life and explained our trip and purpose to our new friend and as this transpired Alex’s brother pulled up in his car with his girlfriend and groceries in hand.  We made our introductions and Alex began making this magical banana bread.  We spent the whole night sharing amazing conversation and stuffing our stomachs to the top with this amazing banana concoction.  We discussed culture, life, experience, and the definition of what DeFiNe yourself meant to B and me.  Alex’s brother’s girlfriend was from Russia and had been in the states for only a short month.  It was so amazing to see new culture and people not from the US and the way they viewed life and how they projected their energy into this world and universe we all take apart in.  The energy levels and my spirit was already beginning to climb into new senses of elevation.   My soul had felt like it was flying above a mountain and had already begun to take new shape.  

 B and I had discussed how amazing this time was going to be and how much closer our friendship bond would be at the end of our trip.  The night had come to a close and we went back to the top of the mountain and camped out the rest of the night.  We awoke that morning early and drove into Asheville to take DEFINE INC to the next level.  We went to different stores and talked to many different types of people and told them about what we were in town for and why we came to them.  Amazing responses, new contacts and even better Artist information was just a few of the things we walked away with from our trip to downtown.  B and I were so empowered about the responses we had received already so we decided to head back to Black Mountain and wrap up our time in NC.  We went to bed around midnight and planned on a 5am wake up call to head to what we thought was going to be Louisville, KY. 

I awoke around 4:33am by my biological clock and immediately woke up B.  We packed the car and began the hundred of miles trip.  We drove threw the Mountains of NC, and TN when I received a surprising phone call from a really good guy and amazingly talented DJ I know from Chicago by the name of Keith Mackenzie.  Keith owns his own music label for the electronic break beat industry.  We spoke briefly and Keith told me he was playing a party in Chicago, IL and I should come and he would put B and me on the guest list.  So and there it was no more Louisville, KY and Chicago, IL is now the final destination of today’s driving.

here we o!

All I can say is by now me and B both hate corn, and no we don’t mean you Scott. HaHa. Indiana is nothing but corn everywhere and is so flat and basically is the most un-interesting state to see on our journey thus far. But no matter the atmosphere in the car we were determined to make the 10 hour hike to Chicago. After about 9 cups of coffee and a few stops for 45 minute naps me and B made it into the city around 6:30pm. B had been to the city before and immediately started to drive around and show me as much as he possibly could in the time we had before the sunset. We had decided to take some pics and cruise Lake Shore Drive which is right on the lake water and is absolutely gorgeous. We took as many photos as nature would allow because the city decided to dump some rain on B and I. We had previously made arrangements to see Keith Mackenzie at the congress theatre and began to make our way towards that side of town. Immediately I began to see why B loved this city so much it was nothing short of the most gorgeous city I have ever seen with my own eyes. The city possessed so much beauty, it was clean, very well spread out and the people were absolutely the friendliest of any dense metropolis I had been to before in my life.

We headed to the north side of Chicago because that is were the congress theatre was located and found premium parking and set out to walk some blocks and experience the city at its finest. We trolled around for about 2 hours before heading to the congress theatre for the show. When we arrived we were surprised to see the massive size of the venue, I am talking totally Mansion in Miami type seating. We walked around the different rooms and heard some of the local DJ’s that Chicago had to offer. If you all reading this don’t know Chicago is the city where electronic house music was born. There were some styles that we definitely had never heard before and things that we had seen but it was a ear opening experience to say the least. While walking the party we ran into the promoter and explained who we were and what we were doing in Chicago and how we knew Keith Mackenzie. I told Bob how I was apart of FSOB promotions and we immediately clicked hard. We told him about our ventures and were we would be staying that evening. (In the car) HAHA. Bob is one of the most amazing kind hearted people that I have ever met in my life. Bob’s hospitality and kindness is the way life and any scene should always carry in it. I will never forget meeting him and his whole crew and the amount of love and karma that was passed upon to B and I. Bob I would like to say you gave me a gift that could never be replaced, and as they say you cant keep what you have until you give it away so me and B will make sure we continue to pass the love you showed us to other people along our journey. The whole night of the show was filled with dancing, great conversation and getting to know our good newfound friends. We stayed at the party until close and then went to the after-hours party located directly underground of the current venue the party was at. The after-hours ended around 4 or 5am and we left the venue and headed to Bob’s house. Bob lived in the most amazing 4 story townhouse nestled in the North-side of Chicago. He had a rooftop balcony that overlooked the Chicago city skyline, you can see a picture above that B took as we watched the sun come up. While in the city we hit stores galore promoting the clothing line and managed to pick up about 6 stores that said they would carry our line. GET SOME!! We ended up staying with our new friends for 3 days and had the most memorable time good energy and karma allowed and took the positive energy and began to head west to see our great friend MIKE TRIPP, WHO MIKE TRIPP!!! LOL!!

Mike lives about 30 minutes away from downtown Chicago, without traffic haha.
As we arrived we actually beat Mike to his house but were welcomed by Mike’s girlfriend who was very nice and showed us there gorgeous home. Mike’s girlfriend Brittany actually grew up in the home that they were currently living in but they were planning on moving to riverside in about 3 weeks. Our first night was spent around Mike and Britt’s home relaxing and having great conversation. We woke up the next morning and took care of a few errands we needed to take care of away from the busy city and then heaed to Aurora, IL to meet up with Mike after he worked awhile and had a night out for a few drinks and a stop by the casino. Here comes the part that B, Mike and Britt hate about the casino. I put 5 Bucks in the slot machine and walked away with $560.00 Bucks!! GOOO MEEE!! I plan to carry this energy and the luck with me along the rest of my natural life but one thing is for sure I will not stop or rest until DEFINE CLOTHING IS OUT THERE AND IN YOUR FACE!! WORLD GET READY FOR A FASHION INDUSTRY TAKEOVER!! ;) MUCH LOVE MORE TO COME SOON!!

Chicago. Congress Theater. Keith Mackenzie. Guest List. Need I say more?

Congress Theater

 

Keith Mackenzie gettin' to work.

Our new homies... Bob and Keith Mac

(Thanks for the hospitality Bob!)

 

Afterparty in the dungeon of the Congress Theater.

 Another afterparty pic.

So we decided to merge our newfound friends by taking a trip back to the city and introduce mike and brittany to bob and friends... We traveled into the city and began to head to the northside to meet up with bob and crew... We showed up to their house around 8pm with a case of beer in hand and immediately began socializing and introduced our friends to one another.. Bob and all of his roomates and us headed to the rooftop and destroyed the 1st case of beer in about 30 minutes. We then made our way to the store to get more drinks and made a stop by Arturo's to get some great authentic mexican food..
Bob had previously drank his girlfriends birthday bottle of black label johnny walker so B and I decided to replace it and get another case of beer and then we headed back to the house and the rest of the night started. It was a nice suprise for Coleen (Bob's girlfriend) for us to buy the bottle even though we all drank it all...After finishing a case and a bottle of Johnny Walker we decided to head to the bar and Bob said he would drive us... We went to a bar that Bob said he worked at and got the hook up on disounted bar tabs and stayed until last call and headed back to bob's.. On the way back Bob decided stop signs and red lights didn't apply to city boys and we were pulled over and told to go home (that would never happen in Raleigh, NC) mexican cops got in my face and said get out of my face and pushed me so we departed. We came back and tried to get his car back since the cops locked Bob's keys in his car so while standing in the rain we jimmy'd into his car and went back to his house and grabbed mike and brittany and headed back to downers grove, IL...
We awoke and were awaiting on our new business cards but B forgot to click 24hr turn around when submitting our order online (good job B) so we had to stay another day in IL, which wasn't that bad considering our previous night.. The following morning we grabbed the business cards from the UPS driver packed the car abd headed to good ol St.Louis, MO... We stopped in St.Louis and got to flirt with a sexy gift shop attendant for the big arch and she allowed us to goto the top of the arch for free :)!! We promised a free t-shirt in return and then headed to the cardinals stadium area and had a tall boy with the locals and headed out of St.Louis and towards our new destination Kansas City, MO...







We departed St.Louis in perfect timing to avoid the 5 O'clock city traffic. We continued to drive through Missouri heading towards our next city stop of Kansas City. We had already been in the car over 4 hours long when we decided to depart St.Louis and head to Kansas City. Since we left St.Louis around a little after 6pm the majority of our drive to K-City was spent during the night. We always research every city we goto before we actually get there. We do this to find the art districts, fine clothing retailers, and any other art areas and stores that we might be able to bring on board to carry our line or artists to add fresh new designs to line.

B and I refuled the car with 100% bio-diesel and refuled ourselves with 100% pure fine colombian coffee and off we went into the sunset (literally)..
Missouri is a really flat state and I couldn't think of a better state to drive through at night time because there is not much to see during the drive. We loaded up on caffiene the whole drive to K-City as we always do while we are on the road. The chariot bio-turbodeeez catapulted us out of St.Louis,MO and into the K-City in a short 4 hours. As we pulled into downtown we hit the main streets we had previously researched for in the car. According to our research K-City has the 5th largest art district in the United States, unfortunately downtown did not show us this. While driving through the city things seemed suprisingly dead and extremely quite for a city of its magnitude.
We circled around the art district and looked at the galleries and fine dining restaurants that made up the multiple block art district.

The city looked and seemed so empty that B and I almost began to think we made a wrong turn at some point or our research had dropped us in a wrong part of town away from all the action. We decided to make a quick stop and ask some locals where the best night spots were in-town and we got the info and headed to the area in which we just were told to go. On the way to the side of town where the action was we passed by a place that had a ton of people standing out in front with thumps of bass leaking out the doors of the venue.

Of course, you know I told B he had to turn around and we needed to go check out the cool looking spot we passed by. We parked the car and we both threw on jeans and I tossed some product in my hair and we headed to the club. As we arrived to the front entrance B asked some locals what kind of club it was and we were told it was a gay/lesbian bar and there was a drag show going on until 12:30am and then it would be open format for dancing.
I was excited for many different reasons. One being my sister is a lesbian and I love the shit out of her and two if u know me at all I live to dance.. :) There was a five dollar cover at the door but the same local that told us about the venue and what kind of scene it was told us that if we paid the cover at the door she would buy our 1st round of drinks.. B and I entered the club and went to claim our 1st round on the house as promised. The local we spoke to before entering and that hooked us up with the drinks was an absolutely gorgeous woman by the name of Birdi. While having conversation with Birdi we had come to find out that she actually bartended at the club but she was just their for fun and not to work that night. Birdi is such an amazing person with such a huge heart it was a pleasure just alone by itself to have met her not including the other things I am about to convey to you about what she did for us.

We were told by the security guard at the door of the club that there was another strip of awesome bars and the type of scene we would be more into a little ways away. B and I jumped into the car and headed to check out the other spots we were reffered to. There was a really neat club we got to have a few drinks at and it was one of the spots we had been referred to by the security guard. As we entered the DJ at the club was dropping some really funky 808 bass with "K-City Rap".. I really was feeling the music and went and spoke to the DJ and told him I enjoyed the bass he was dropping and that I was impressed he was mixing K-City rap with 808 bass, he responded "damn man this isn't even my labtop on mine I got some real crunkers!"

I gave the DJ one of our business cards and explained our journey and he told us of another bar down the block that we might like. We walked a block down the road and whipped out our ID's and enetered the complex like nightlife area. We were treated like absolute shit from some local guy saying that my jeans were to ripped and a little to baggy and we had to leave. After being kicked out of the most ridiculous joke of a club scene B and I came to the conclusion that the guy that kicked us out was just really sad and upset because our jeans were nicer than his whole wardrobe. We immediately left and went back to the lesbian bar to hang out with our kick ass new friend Birdi. We arrived back to the club and Birdi had shots sitting waiting on us to drink. We slammed back a few shots and then asked Birdi were we could set up our tents in the area to goto sleep when we left the club. Birdi told us there wasn't any parks around the city and there was no need for us to go camp that we could follow her back to her house and stay there with her. We arrived at Birdi's house and when u walk in there is gorgeous original paintings on the walls that Birdi had created herself. The art was so clean and crisp and really helped set her living room off. Birdi had such an increadible energy amongst her soul that just overflowed around you and into you while she was around you. Birdi was so funny, witty, sweet, caring, and nice to B and I. I could tell that she wasn't just like this to us and that she carried an amazing spirit and projected near flawless positive energy. Her energy was almost identical to the energy B and I are trying to put forth towards each new city and new person we come in contact with.

We stayed up a few more hours at Birdi's house after leaving the club around 3am. Birdi made us a bed on her fold out couch and sat with us and we talked for a bit as well as played around creating awesme laughs in the process.. We awoke around 9am, with B's arm around me and half naked...HAHA just kidding.  We woke up and started to re-group ourselves said our goodbye's and headed toward our next stop that would be Denver, CO.  We drove across the boring states taking very few pictures totally ready to start seeing nature since it had been a little while since we had the chance to explore our souls because we were in the hustle of cities.  
We arrived into Denver, CO around 10pm Denver time and parked the car popped the trunk and removed two, 22oz Fat Tire beers and immediately posted up by a dumpster and drank our deuce deuce's enjoying the mountain air.  While behind the dumpster chugging our hoppy goodness, some guys came around the corner to piss by the dumpsters and we immediately connected with them telling them what we were doing and our mission, they told us to follow them to a great bar and get some cheap drinks.  We immediately were game.  We got to the bar and they were playing awesome music and there were tons of people dancing and the drinks were flowing from our new friends and we were returning the favor back and forth.  We asked them what else was good in the area and they said there were some good bars down the street.  So we said our goodbyes and headed to the next spot.  We stayed at this new double decker bar until close admiring beautiful Colorado woman and dancing the evening away.  As the music came to a stop and as the crowd began to flow towards the exit we made our way slowly with the pack of people towards the door and immediately were pushed back inside by burning eyes and trouble to breathe.  We had no clue what was going on until a local told us the cops had tear gas'd the exits.  B and i were like what the fuck is going on, finally a manager of the bar opened up the back exit and we made our way towards the front of the club and were suprised to see a crowd of people smoking marijuana everywhere and police in riot mode.  In Denver, CO it is legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana on your person, so smoking in the streets is nothing un-common we found this out quickly.  After participating in the festivities I called a friend I knew by the name of Joanne in Denver that I had spoke to previously who said she was having people over her house for a little party.  We grabbed a cab and made our way towards her place and were welcomed by her and her roommates with some fine medical from a local medical shop, it was called Early Girl topped with a little bubble hash. What an amazing time we had sharing lives and talking about each others life and encounters and the difference between our cultures and states.  What amazing people colorado had to offer.  So we spent the night with our new friends until the sunrise was peering over the mountains and headed back to the car.  Once at the car we tried to sleep as long as possible before the sun was beating down on the vehicle.  After about an hour had past we decided to go to the nearest campground where we would set up for the following night.  Once at the campgrounds we noticed a farmers market of local growers and walked around and ate some great local food and viewed a great river that ran directly beside our camp area.  B and I couldnt get enough of the great views of Colorodo and what we for sure knew was to come.   After spending the day relaxing we dcided to head to town to pick up some stores while time was still on our sides.   We walked aroud Denver and found some really cool stores that were feeling our vibe and what we were trying create and also were on board.  We want to create a energy, a movement, and community, a collective of great people and artists alike ourselves that can speak through clothing to a diverse group of people.  After having a great day in the streets we stumbled upon a free outdoor concert featuring rock music in a local park and checked it out and had a great time walking around enoyigng great music and vibing with the great people of Denver.  That night we went back to our campsite and got ready for the next days travel to Boulder, CO. We awoke packed the car and headed to Boulder, CO.  When we arrived in Boulder there was another market taking place and walked around a little bit before we hit the local strips to find more stores to carry our line and what we carry.  We found a cool store that wanted to buy shirts right then on the spot and was very happy about how things were taking place in Colorado.  We spend all day until the evening trying to find somewhere to camp or sleep and finding stores.  Finally we stumbled across some really cool guys next to a sick skate shop with graffiti on the side wall and began talking and they offered us some beers and we began to hang out until the late evening and stayed with great neighbors we met through or new friends.  When the morning came we loaded the car up and decided it was time to go back into the nature liek e enjoyed so much at our previous campsite.  It was time to head to Rocky Mountain National Park!