Howdy, Don here,
I've actually been working with maps cartography for over 20 years. I worked in cultural resource archaeology for most of those years, mapping archaeological sites and plotting site locations on reference maps. Over the years I trained in basic GIS and advanced GPS technologies.
Since changing career paths, cartography has become more of a hobby. Recently I joined a chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism and have become more interested in the history and medieval techniques of cartography and map making.