I just happened to be in Oregon, America, with nothing to do and no transport and was house-sitting somewhere which just happened to have a Macintosh and free local calls.

I got hold of a modem, terminal emulation software, a list of numbers of local bulletin boards and managed to arrange an account at the local university (Oregon State University: OSU) on their mail/news machine in two minutes.

Armed with all these jollies, cranberry juice and doughnuts, I set out to explore, emerging three months later blinking in the sunlight and much spottier.