WEEK ONE RECAP!
Yesterday officially started week 2 of our cross-country phototour. We thought now would be a good time to recap all of the fun things that happened this week.
Here’s a short photo recap:
Also:
On Friday, we held a contest via Twitter, where anyone who suggested us for #FollowFriday was entered to win a special prize. We created a fun stop-motion to determine the winners.
Welldonetour.com Friday Postcard Giveaway from welldonemedia on Vimeo.
The lucky winners were….. Mary Ellis and Donald Jones! Hooray!
Also:
Our friends at OkayGreat.com created an epic contest of sorts involving us as well. We are basically at the mercy of their voicemail system. Our project for this week: 6 Generations of Mustaches. Head to OkayGreat for more info.
Also:
Here’s the press we received this week… it’s so great to have this kind of support in the Triangle. Thanks to everyone who mentioned us!
GoGoRaleigh: Well Done Media hits the road
30Threads: Raleigh couple to blog about travels across the country
NorthHillsBuzz Copies & Pastes my email (whatever works)
30Threads: Trip delay causes local photographers to take break for Locopops
OkayGreat: First project! First prize!
New Raleigh’s Well Done Media Photocolumn!
Lastly, we want to give a giant THANK YOU to all of our contributors who helped make tour week 1 possible:
Michael Casey
Peter Jurich
Cuthrell Consulting
Thomas Rowe
Annette Stone
Anne Jessup
Barry Barrington
Nellie Lytvinenko
Alicia Conway
Tara Jafari
Charles Gillikin
Ali Pearson
Sal Consigliaro
Chad Evans
Brian Griffin
Emily Hester
Kelly Hubbard
Baxter Miller
Christian Staples
Kate Sykes
Meghan Lassiter
Cheryl & Louis Hahn
Angus Gorberg
Adam Schoeller
DJ Larry
If you dig what we’re doing, click the button below to donate or click here for more info on how to contribute to/advertise with/hire us.
Indianapolis, Target, Chicago.
Our second day in Indianapolis was rather uneventful. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
We spent our afternoon in a downtown coffee shop putting together giant to-do lists, attempting to carry out snippets of said to-do lists, and putting together a stop-motion video to announce the winners of our Postcard Friday contest. It turned out pretty neat. You should watch it.
Next stop was Carmel, IN. It’s a little burb about 30 minutes north of downtown. We took a slight detour to drive by Helena’s childhood home on the way.
Our night in Carmel consisted mainly of spending time with the Hahns, eating crepes, petting dogs, researching, clipping, compiling data, writing, editing, emailing, calling, pitching, and watching X-Men 2. A low-key, generally productive night to prepare us for our trek to Chicago.
The drive to Chicago was… scenic. We were kindly warned by the state of Illinois that upcoming road work would have us in traffic that would make our remaining 80 mile drive take approximately three hours. So we took a little detour through… well we’re not really sure. But it got us to Chicago. We stopped at Target on the way, because Helena had a $25 gift card. We felt it was appropriate to spend it on things that would be necessary for tour, such as:
- Animal crackers
- Jolly Rancher gummies
- Four packs of grow capsules (in assorted shapes including aquatic animals, farm animals, and dinosaurs)
- Phase 10 deck
- Lisa Frank sticker set.
All of these will be put to use very soon.
After some more driving and about 90 wrong turns (Helena was driving), we made it to Chicago.
First stop: Sultan’s Market. Tim had been ranting about this place the entire way into the city. Apparently they have the best falafel sandwiches on the planet.
And that they did. Two spicy falafel sandwiches stuffed with cucumber + yogurt + hummus + spicy spice with curry rice to top it off. Good way to start the night.
We spent the next few hours wandering the streets of Wicker Park, and eventually found ourselves in a bar called the Crocodile, that happened to be serving $4 Blue Moon, $4 Dewars, and $4 Jim Beam, all of which comes with FREE PIZZA. We were sold. We ate more food and drank more drinks and wrote more obscenely long to-do lists. Nothing can take us completely away from all of our tour work… not even bourbon and beer and free pizza.
Around midnight, we headed to friend and gracious host Angus’ house, aka “The Whiskey Chest,” for some hangtime. We had full intentions of going out and exploring the city, but next thing I know, we look at the clock and it’s 3:15. I think it’s time to rest.
Next up: Chicago day 2.
Longest day ever: flaming semi trailers, secret Indy speakeasys, etc.
Yesterday was a long day.
We woke up in Raleigh. 7:30 AM. I (Helena) made plans to meet up with Simon Biswas, the road warrior that I wrote about in my previous tour planning post, at Morning Times for a cup of coffee. It only felt appropriate to meet up in the same spot where I first read his email about planning an epic phototour meetup.
Our coffeetime was a little rushed, as Tim and I were supposed to get on the road early, but Simon and I had a jolly time showing each other our tour routes, plans, and music suggestions. We snapped a few window shots and then I headed on my way. I can’t wait to compare tour stories + photos with him again when he stops through San Francisco.
And so began the drive. Driving to Indianapolis. A little far. Yes, we know.
Our original plans for Indianapolis:
- Arrive mid-afternoon or evening
- Eat sushi at sushi restaurant in which my friend Megan works
- Go to Vollrath Tavern to meet up with fellow Raleigh compadres and road warriors Bowerbirds and Megafaun, who had a show in Indianapolis that night.
- See where night goes from there.
After making a quick stop at a coffee shop in Durham to get more work done, we were extremely tempted to go surprise the Flywheel Design crew with a round of Locopops (fully expecting a response of… “aren’t you supposed to be in Montreal or something by now?”), but with limited time and funding in our Locopops budget, we decided it would be best to head on our way. Just know, Flywheel folk, we thought hard about it. Real hard.
Every single drive I have ever made through the NC mountains has been dominated by ridiculous rainstorms. This time was not much different. The storms were spotty, but intense. We’d go from sun to torrential downpour, and sometimes both simultaneously.
Enter West Virginia. Such an incredibly gorgeous state. Last time I was here I was touring with American Aquarium, yacking my brains out from food poisoning I received in Pittsburgh hours earlier. I’ve suddenly started producing body head and have been allergic to garlic ever since.
Anyway. The drive was going as planned.
Then, the inevitable traffic jam. In West Virginia, of course. The perfect setting for such a jam. Mountain to left, mountain to right, no exits for ten miles or so. No escaping this one.
Two miles and TWO HOURS LATER, we are quite eager to see the source of such a jam. We mentally prepare ourselves for some sort of measly fenderbender, so we can wallow in the irony just a little bit more.
Turns out it was a semi truck’s trailer that had caught on fire and perhaps exploded. Ok. That will do as a proper excuse for epic traffic jam. We finally pass it by and head on our way.
After a not-so-quick stop hunting for wireless in Raleigh County, WV (appropriately), we check our remaining travel time. Six hours to go. It’s 8:00 PM. Something tells me we’re going to be missing the show. I call the B-birds and tell them that we’ll just to see them somewhere else in the country in a few days.
Fast-forward six hours. Actually, almost seven. We finally arrive in Indianapolis. It’s 2:50 AM. Great news: Bars close at 3 AM here!
So we head to Broadripple, a bustling neighborhood in the city, to meet up with my friend Meghan, just in time for last call. We have a much-deserved beverage, and prepare to call it a night soon thereafter.
But no. There is a treat in store for us.
A certain friend of Meghan’s is opening a late-night speakeasy of sorts for us where we can drink for free, in a certain restaurant in a certain neighborhood of a certain city that we happen to be in. That’s basically as much detail as I can provide you on that one.
So we spent the rest of our night in an unlit, seemingly closed restaurant, sipping free cocktails with a hoard of new Indianapolis friends we had made ten minutes prior. They were all quite ahead of us on the drinking, as they had been drinking for hours, and we had been drinking for minutes, and it was quite funny trying to participate in conversations that consisted mostly of me autopiloting responses to inaudible slurring. Friendly well-intentioned slurring though. Nice folk they were. It was a good time had.
We’re going to spend the next day or so exploring Indianapolis. I was born here, and haven’t really explored it in about 16 years… so me and Indy have some catching up to do. More adventures to come.
Raleigh… again??
We had been anticipating a first week chock-full of thunderstorms. That’s what technology had been telling us anyway…
And somehow our random ocean excursion was pleasantly devoid of crumby weather. Even up to the point when we had to leave.
We weren’t entirely sure where we were going from here. We figured driving westward was a good start. We said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts, John & Linda Lytvinenko (who are kin to Well Done Media’s Tim Lytvinenko, if you could not have guessed), and headed on our way.
Not having a specific destination was not a huge concern to us. We had plans to be in Indianapolis by the 17th, so anywhere between there and the Atlantic Ocean would be a valid stopping point.
It wasn’t long until we found this mysterious unseen ominous weather. It was conveniently waiting for us on HWY 40. Lovely.
We couldn’t think of anything more logical or ironic than stopping back in Raleigh. What’s another day of dealing with everyone in the streets saying… “Aren’t you supposed to be gone already?” and us responding with “Yes… we’re gone. Totally not here right now. You never saw us.”
First stop: Visit Tim’s brother, Victor Lytvinenko, and his wife, Sarah, at their warehouse. Victor and Sarah are owners of the oh-so-wonderful Raleigh Denim. They’ve lately been busy with shipping obscenely large orders of hand-crafted, custom-made denim to Barneys New York. Not a bad problem to have! We felt like they wouldn’t mind taking a break to deal with yet another surprise Raleigh visit from team Tim & Helena.
A big thank you to Raleigh Denim for making Tim his new short pants. Victor (above) is putting the finishing touches on the jeans. 
rachel.
sarah.
We were thinking about heading to Asheville &/or Knoxville for the night, but our places to stay didn’t end up confirming until about 9 PM. At that point, it was a little late to start driving, so we crashed in Raleigh, one last freaking time. Promise.
Next task for team Well Done Media: Onward to Indy. Bowerbirds and Megafaun await.
As Well Done Media, we utilize photography and experience-based travel to create innovative media campaigns connecting products, services and brands to relevant publics.