When you grow-up and move away you realize how much you miss the south -- The justly famed "southern hospitality", the history, the charm of little towns and their story tellers, the eccentric humor, the unique foods, the great cooking and the simple sweetness of just being alive there. Bob Cotten founded "The Homesick Southern Homepage" after he moved north and got tired of begging friends and family to send him sugar cane syrup and stone ground grits and copies of the local newspaper in the mail.

So he found a way to put the south on a plate and bring it to everybody who isn't there and that includes some of the best, hardest-to-find, southern foods, great pictures of the south, tall tales and other stuff, some of it true. The site also brings you home to the fictional, small, southern town of Earnest which you will learn about solely through its amusing and often sardonic newspaper, "The Earnest Herald".

There's more here than fiction, though: We're going to explore the real south and talk to locals and chronicle outstanding places for you to visit right now, today. So, y'all come on back for a while and find out what we're up to and get your-self un-homesick.