Why a blog??

Hey everyone! So this is my first blog, first post - ever. So excuse me if it starts out long and awkward and goes on to ramble a little bit.

My name's Meredith, and I like to consider myself a traveler, photographer, try-er of new things, and a relatively good person (you know, I try). The name, "Terra Incognita," is Latin for "Unknown Land," and here's why I started..

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I started a blog because of the traveling my boyfriend and I do. We've been together for 2 years now (his name's Randy) and we both were just kind of born with a yearning to explore the world and see more than we could possibly imagine. He started a brand called ENJOYOURIDE (EYR) about 5-6 years ago, and since then has been expanding it and working on gaining credentials among the entertainment world.

Fast forward to last September. We realized that we both love to travel, and that EYR could be that opportunity. He came up with an idea, and ENJOYOURIDE Next Exit (EYRNE) was born. The basis of EYRNE is that we travel the U.S. Interstate system and record each and every exit (hence the name). The first step was deciding how we were going to travel. He owned a 2010 Camaro at the time, and I had a Jeep Compass. Neither was really accommodating to the amount of time we were planning on spending on the road, so we traded the Camaro in for a 2015 Ford Transit 250 van, which we now call Eyrne (pronounced Ernie). We looked up how to convert a van into a livable space, and proceeded to install insulation and line the sides with wood so we'd stay warm when it was cold, and cool when it was hot.

Then we started planning our first trip for EYNRE. We decided on I-80, because it spans from the West to the East coast. We decided to start at the Iowa-80 truckstop, and head East. Neither of us had ever really been out East, and since it was October we figured the colors driving through the Appalachian Mountains would be beautiful to experience. We set aside 3 weeks - from October 12th until October 31st - for the trip which would consist of about 250 exits or so.

I'm telling you, you miss SO MUCH of the United States by traveling on the Interstate. By stopping at each exit we saw towns we'd never have known existed, met people we would never have met, and seen things we totally would've missed just driving straight through. It sounds like it could get old, stopping at all the exits, but when we were on our way home, I missed it. I felt like I was missing out on experiences that I wouldn't get to have.

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Our next trip is in June (ahh!). We are leaving June 11th and traveling West this time! My favorite direction. Because of how expansive each state West is with I-80, we'll be driving through Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming. It'll be, in total, about 325 exits. We'll stop once we get south of Yellowstone National Park, and then we'll spend a few days driving through there and seeing the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. So that's what's coming up. I'm super duper excited - like I said, West is my favorite direction. But I'll get to that later.

So yes! That's why I started this blog - to record our travels, my thoughts, advice, etc. I don't want to label it simply as a travel related blog, because I plan on writing about so much more.

So enjoy - I hope I can share my thoughts and travels with you all ~~