Thank you very much Brent, jjjnettie, Poita, Rob, PeterM, and Leon for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience.
I can see the advantages of starting with binoculars but I don't have any. For the moment I seem to be making some progress with the scope and RDF. I do have a EP with a TFOV equal to the scopes TMAX (about 2.85 degrees) that helps somewhat.
One thing that makes binos less attractive to me is that I don't have binocular vision so don't get the enhanced perception that binoculars provide. There are a few monoculars on eBay that might work around the $100 range (e.g. a 10x50 & 8x70), although I wouldn't expect really great optics. Not sure if that would inhibit learning the sky although they probably wouldn't give high quality views of objects. I noticed some night vision monoculars, I wonder how those would work for dim stars...
Regarding a GOTO scope or an Argo Navis, I'm just starting out and don't know how deeply I may get involved so I'm reluctant to spend that much (besides, I don't have it to spend!). I have spent good money alread on EP's and they've made a dramatic difference over the 9mm & 25mm MA's that came with the scope. I feel they can be sold without a horrible loss if I don't continue.
Thanks again for your comments, and thanks jjjnettie for the chuckle!