About My Travel Innovations
The short version
My Travel Innovations is an independent field journal published by My Travel Innovations LLC, a registered Idaho Limited Liability Company. The journal runs structured trials of travel methods: planning routines, packing systems, offline tools, and short regional outings. Each trial starts with a written plan, gets tested under real conditions, and ends with a plain verdict. The results appear in two sections, Workbench for methods and tools and Waypoints for field checks in specific places.
This page explains where the company came from, what it does, and what it deliberately will not do. It also covers how the work is paid for and who writes every word of it. Near the bottom you will find the formal company records, listed line by line so you can verify them yourself. If a question remains after you finish reading, the FAQ and the contact desk are the natural next stops.
The story
The company began in Boise, Idaho, where founder Evan Merrick has lived for more than a decade. Long before the journal existed, he kept spiral notebooks filled with trip routines: what to pack, when to leave, which habits actually held up on the road. Friends borrowed those notebooks before their own trips, marked them up, and kept asking for copies. That steady, low-level demand suggested the notes deserved a sturdier home than a kitchen drawer could offer.
In February 2021 he formed My Travel Innovations LLC and registered it with the Idaho Secretary of State. The company existed before the journal did, and that order of operations was deliberate. A formal entity meant a real mailing address on Bannock Street, clean bookkeeping, and signed agreements with the designers and illustrators who help with the site. It also meant the project would answer to public records rather than to a nickname on the internet, which matters when you ask readers to trust your verdicts.
The first years were quiet by design. The company spent them building the testing routine itself: how to write a trial plan worth following, how to log field days consistently, and how to score a verdict without exaggerating what happened. Dozens of methods went through that process, and most of them were discarded for being fragile, fussy, or simply not worth the effort. The keepers went into a backlog that slowly matured into an editorial calendar with real dates attached.
The journal you are reading launched in 2026 as the company's first public publication. Everything on the site follows the discipline those notebooks started: state the idea clearly, test it honestly, and report what happened, including the parts that failed. The name on the masthead matches the name on the state filing, and the address in the footer matches the address on record. That alignment is the whole point of doing this as a company.
What this company does
My Travel Innovations LLC is a publishing company, and the journal on this domain is its entire product. Beyond the writing itself, the company handles the small amount of operational work needed to keep an independent publication running and accountable. In practical terms, that work breaks down into a short list.
- It publishes trial write-ups in two sections: Workbench for methods tested at home and on the road, and Waypoints for field checks in and around Idaho.
- It maintains the editorial calendar, keeps the trial logs, and archives the raw field notes that sit behind every published verdict.
- It sends Release Notes, a short email digest that announces new trials to readers who have asked to receive it.
- It answers reader mail, publishes dated corrections when a write-up gets something wrong, and keeps a record of both.
- It commissions the illustrations and diagrams that appear on the site and pays the hosting provider and form delivery service that keep it online.
- It keeps its own paperwork current with the State of Idaho, from annual filings to the registered agent listing shown below.
What it does not do
Just as important is the list of things this company deliberately avoids. The journal's usefulness depends on it having nothing to sell you, so the boundaries below are permanent policy rather than a temporary posture. They are restated in the site footer and in the Disclaimer because they shape how every page here should be read.
- It is not a travel agency and does not plan, arrange, or supervise trips for anyone, including readers who ask nicely.
- It sells no tickets, tours, packages, lodging, or gear, and it has no plans to start.
- It takes no bookings and processes no payments of any kind: there is no cart, no checkout, and no billing system anywhere on the site.
- It does not compare prices, track fares, or publish availability, and any figure inside an article describes a past trip rather than a current offer.
- It is not affiliated with any airline, rail operator, lodging company, or reservation platform, and it accepts nothing from businesses in the categories its articles discuss.
- It does not accept payment for editorial coverage, so no article, sentence, or verdict on this site has been purchased by anyone.
How the journal is funded
The journal is reader-supported in the plainest sense: it exists because readers use it, and its costs are covered by the founder through the company rather than by outside backers. Founder funding pays for hosting, illustration, and the modest expenses of field testing, which keeps every editorial decision inside the building. The site currently shows no advertising and carries no sponsored content of any kind. If consent-based advertising is ever enabled in the future, it would be clearly labeled as advertising, kept visually separate from editorial text, and served only after you agree through the notice described in the Cookie Policy. No advertiser would see a draft, suggest a topic, or influence a verdict under any arrangement. The Privacy Policy explains what would change on the data side under that scenario, which today is nothing at all.
Who runs it
Evan Merrick is the founder, the sole editor, and the person who actually runs the trials. He has lived in Boise for more than ten years and plans most field checks around the Intermountain West, because that is the ground he can reach, revisit, and re-test when a result looks doubtful. He writes every trial plan, logs every field day, and signs every verdict that appears on the site. There is no rotating cast of contributors producing volume, so when a write-up says a method was tested, he tested it personally. He also serves as the company's registered agent, which places his full name on the public filing as well as the masthead. Mail sent through the contact page reaches him directly, usually within a few business days.
Company records
- Legal name
- My Travel Innovations LLC
- Entity type
- Limited Liability Company
- State
- Idaho, United States
- Registrar
- Idaho Secretary of State
- File number
- 4152873
- EIN
- 93-2718405
- Formed
- February 11, 2021
- Registered agent
- Evan A. Merrick, 950 W Bannock St, Boise, ID 83702
- Office
- 950 W Bannock St, Boise, ID 83702, United States
- Phone
- +1 (208) 331-7462
- mailroom@mytravelinnovations.com
Independence
My Travel Innovations is an independent publication, and its independence is structural rather than decorative. The company has no parent organization, no outside owners, and no commercial ties to any airline, rail operator, booking service, or equipment maker. Nothing tested on this site arrived free in exchange for coverage: test items are purchased at ordinary retail, and trips are paid for the same way any reader would pay for them. When a published write-up needs a correction, the fix is posted and dated in the open rather than quietly patched. Privacy and records questions go to records@mytravelinnovations.com, while everything else goes to the mailroom address listed above. If any part of this arrangement ever changes, this page will say so plainly before the change takes effect.