Hey, Al, Fitz here. Today we've got two beautiful shorts for you. They're also about the hard parts of life.

And I find that interesting that those difficult parts, the hard times, sometimes they can also be the most beautiful.

It doesn't feel that way during it. It feels like pain, uncertainty loss, grief, and a basic burning desire that things had worked out differently.

But slowly that evolves.

If we actually care for each other, if we care for ourselves, sometimes that pain slowly grows into something else.

Today, Allison Kaplan takes us to the desert,

and Monica Nugan takes us to the rivers of Minnesota.

I'm Fitzco Hall, and you're listening to The Dirtbag Diaries.

I'm Fittska Hall, and you're listening to The Dirtbag Diaries. Thank you. I was 22 the first time I hit the road on my own.

My boyfriend and I had been nearing a breaking point in our relationship, so I'd left him in California with the instructions to take a few days to think about it and email me when he was ready to talk on the phone. I spent the first restless day spiraling in the driver's seat,

reliving each sad snippet of our last conversation as the repetition of Basin and Range and

basin and range and basin and range slowly numbed my mind. I slept in a campground that I never saw,

arriving after dark and leaving before sunup, and on the second morning I was halfway across Utah

by the time the sun peaked over the cliffs that lined I-70, and the whole world lit up red.

I wanted to be excited about my first true solo climbing trip, but I wasn't.

I was sad.

And the closer I got to Moab, the more real it felt that I was about to abandon cell service,

and in doing so, abandon any semblance of control over my future with the first person I'd ever loved.

Each signed attraction called out to me,

not because I was interested in the weird desert displays and oddities, but because a stop would

delay the inevitable. I kept my foot on the gas and stared straight ahead. I had to get to Indian

Creek before my resolve cracked. I had to go on this climbing trip, not because I wanted to,

...