[OSM-newbies] Best GPS hand held device for my needs

[Dick Angus]

As my profile says I am a raw newbie at GPS and mapping. I've never owned or 
used a GPS device. I live in a small town in Southern Alberta, Canada and as 
a retirement project would like to try and add some information about my town 
of Okotoks and area to Open Maps. I run Kubuntu Linux (always kept current) 
on both a desktop and a laptop.

I have friends who have built in nav systems in their new cars so I've seen a 
bit of what goes on. I would like to get a hand held device that I can use as 
an in car navigator for trips around North America or Europe and also use as 
a mapping device for this project. Being able to ask how to get me from my 
house to my son's place in San Francisco by the shortest route and then have 
the device guide me would be amazing. I have looked at the various guides in 
the WiKi, but I don't even know enough to understand what they are saying. 
Can anyone pass on advice on a good device to meet my needs or should I say 
desires?

TIA and I look forward to being able to add to this great project.
-- 
An old mainframer getting modern