This episode of the outside podcast is brought to you by Travel Texas, which invites you to visit a place where you can find authentic adventures at every turn.

Over the years at Outside Magazine, we've covered many of the unique experiences that you can only have in Texas.

From camping in Big Bend National Park to world-class kiteboarding and wind surfing off South Padre Island, what comes through in all these stories is that Texas

is really what you expect.

I feel like it's a place of discovery, and as an editor, there's nothing more exciting than surprising and delighting my readers with something they don't see coming.

This is my colleague John Dorn, who found himself totally unprepared. For the spectacular environment, he encountered on his first trip to Texas, when he visited Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

It's a remarkable place. It's got a range of ecology and fossil history and wildlife and bird life that is truly stunning.

There's something really special about the colors in this northwestern corner of Texas, the contrast of the yellows and the reds and the oranges that are flaming in fall color, against the backdrop thousands of feet below you of Chihuahua Desert,

where you look out and see sand dunes and salt flats and acres and acres of cacti.

It holds a special place in my memory among the hundreds of backpacking and hiking trips that I've taken in my lifetime.

Learn more about the many unique adventures you can find all across Texas at traveltexas.com

From outside magazine, this is the outside podcast.

Last month, we kicked off a new mini-series on the show called The Summer of Love.

Created by outside magazine, contributing editor Florence Williams, it looks at the surprising ways that our relationships with each other are catalyzed when we head into the wild.

At least that's what Florence told me the stories would be about. And then she brought us this week's piece, which describes how the outdoors empowered one woman to transform her relationship to herself.

Today, Melinda Spuner is the founder and CEO of She Travels, a new adventure travel company based outside of Chicago that designs trips and experiences for black women in women of color.

It's the most meaningful work she could imagine. But getting here from Melinda, that was a long journey. Florence takes the story from here.

When she was in her early 30s, Melinda Spuner was working as a management consultant in a job she hated and her mind and her body were rebelling.

It was more than just burnout. As a black woman, navigating corporate America, what ailed her was both structural and existential.

I literally would wake up in my waking thoughts and excuse my language in this moment. You can bleed this out if you need to.

My waking thoughts every morning became what am I going to fuck up today.

Melinda had worked very hard to get to her position at a big firm in Chicago. It was prestigious and it paid well. Her family was proud of her.

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