Six lines into Empire of the Summer Moon this morning, I hit a word I had never seen:
Bivouacked.
Forty-seven years old. Recovering attorney. I used to read fine print for a living, and I still had to look it up.
To bivouac is to camp in the open with little or no shelter. No tent. No cabin. Just ground, sky, and whatever you brought.
Turns out that's likely what Robby McGehee and I will be doing this weekend on our cattle drive in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas.
Looking at thirteen hours in the truck. Even more in the saddle.
Funny how that works. You open a book about the frontier, and the first word you don't know is your own itinerary.
I've spent a career trying to learn the vocabulary before I walk into the room. Deal terms. Policy language. Lease clauses.
Knowing the word is half the edge.
I can define bivouac now.
By Sunday, I'll know what it means.