Inspired by Montana, I’ve been reading Lewis & Clark’s journals (in the DeVoto abridgement). Soon started to feel terribly guilty, because I wasn’t finding them very interesting. All right, I found them dull. Classics aren’t supposed to be dull (I reflected). Must be me. Yet another personal failing uncovered.

Then I had an email exchange with ueber-explorer and travel writer Steve Bodio. Steve agreed that the journals never did much for him, either. That makes me feel MUCH better. I can come out of the closet now. (Though Steve adds: “Still I would have loved to make the trip,” which I also agree with.)

Two points about the journals: (1) I was astonished at how much sex they had en route. The Indian ladies were pretty free with their favors. (Or, as the severely spelling-challenged Clark noted: “lude.”) (2) The Indian guide Sacajawea, who is inflated to heroic proportions in my kids’ school history lessons — female! native American!! — is a very minor presence in the journals, mostly just referred to as “Charbono’s squar.” (Mountain man Toussaint Charbonneau being Sacajawea’s husband.)