Sandy, did you see the Jack Nicholson film "Five Easy Pieces"? It sounds like your "grits" adventure could be straight out of it. Restaurant Food in Canada (and I normally would never be this general)SUCKS! The first time I visited Nashville I went to a buffet restaurant called "Morrison's" and I truly thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I generally am not a veggie person, but lord lord those stewed tomatoes, black-eyed peas, yams, collard greens, Oh my God!! AND they had SIDE ORDERS of macaroni and cheese!! baked beans, and chili. And the fried catfish! Holy Cow, I'm salivating right now! And generous portions...restaurants in Canada are SOOO stingy! Years ago, I thought seriously about moving to either the U.S. or Britain, because My love for folk music would have been more requited outside of Canada (Toronto at least) Several visits to England convinced me that I was too much of a wimp to contend with the heating, phone service, plumbing, and high prices for gas and a vehicle, (I know much of that has changed, since then) but I love food, and British cuisine just didn't do it for me. When I would travel through the States, I always found folks to be approachable, and affable. (even in NYC!) I was concerned about the perception of racism in the south and the spectre of Vietnam.(I would have been close enough to draft age to worry) Other than that, the south was where I felt the most at home at any time in my life. The music, the food, and the general friendliness of the people. Over the years I've come to realise that bigotry dwells in some "people", not in some "areas". I've encountered as many narrow minds in Toronto as I would anywhere else in the world, often just differently disguised and more closeted. Wherever I've gone the "folk music community" has been a pretty damn good lot of people. I still have regrets about not moving south in my 20s, except by now I'd weigh 300 pounds instead of a svelte 200.