Just read through a lot of the posts in this thread, and found lots of things I agree with. Where I live is close to a ski area and in the summer we get lots of tourists who come for the hiking trails and other natural scenery. If they would stray off the usual paths they would find some quite seedy areas. Even the nearest town has a problem with "street people" and panhandlers who frequent the downtown area, which the city fathers are trying to "revitalize". I think that you could find similar problems in just about every country in the world. We, people in general, tend to glamorize places we do not live. That is why we travel to different countries to see the sights.

As to Scotland, I have a almost visceral need to travel there and see the places that my grandmother told me about, I also want to travel through the countryside because the pictures I have seen give me the impression that it is a beautiful country. My ancestors came from that part of the world, I want to visit where they walked, see things that they saw. I hope someday to do just that.

Maybe my search for a connection is a grasping for something missing in my life otherwise. I am not going to psychoanalyze myself, and it really does not matter. Anything I can do to reaffrim my Scottish roots and to pass on pride of ancestry to my children, I see as a positive. My wife was denied half of her heritage, mainly because her father was a "fling" her mother had with a gentleman of Mexican ancestry.

A lot of people, especially in the USA take immense pride in their hyphen-American roots. Any way I am beginning to ramble so I will cut this short. I am not a wannbe Scot, I am simply trying to show pride in my ancestry, besides kilts are more comfortable than trousers. And the ladies like them more.