LOSTNWOODS (BUT NOT REALLY)

Little Bronx and I just got back from our first geocaching experience.
Success!  It was a hike-and-a-half, but that was due to papa being a total
friggin' newb with the GPS, and parking about a mile away.  And I know
what you're thinking: "Oh no!  Not another geocacher!"  What can I say?
I'm not much of a geek, but I AM quite a nerd.

Yet, I almost WASN'T a geocaching nerd.  You have no idea how hard it was
to wrap my head around this whole thing.  I've had this device for months,
and couldn't make head nor tail of it.   Finally, I heard about a one-day
class in it at the local college, and jumped on the chance.  I still don't
know what I'm doing, but the beginnings of geo-wisdom are, maybe, on the
horizon.

In point of fact, the bewildering range of devices, coupled with a tsunami
of poorly-written how-to's, made this a massively-daunting thing to
undertake.  My real goal here is two-fold: inexpensive family activities;
and I'd like to start contributing to openstreetmap.org.  It would be
extremely cool to get into mapping.  I've always loved maps.  As a nerdy
kid, I used to spend hours making fantasy maps (yes, yes, for Dungeons &
Dragons).  I'd love to make real ones.  We'll see.  That part of mapping
seems to be just as intellectually out-of-reach as geocaching was only up
until recently.  Again, the online instructions you find are pitiful.  I
hope to add my own store of pity to the cause soon enough, but I'll do my
best to learn from the failures of others.