Tips for happy cast iron pan usage:

1. Get a cast iron pan with a smooth interior surface. Some brands are
roughly turned and thus have ribs like an LP record.  Avoid those;
smooth ones work better.
2.  Give a very serious initial scrubbing with  extra fine steel wool
pads to further smooth the surface.
3.  Don't get carried away with the initial "seasoning" of the pan.  This
ritual is oversold. Too much oil/fat, heated to a too high heat, will
form  a gummy coating that actually sticks worse than an unseasoned pan.
Also, do you really want to eat that gummy overheated fat?  Just use a
good coating of fat/oil and heat moderately; then scrub without soap and
repeat.
4.  For best performance, clean thoroughly after cooking  with lots of
hot water and a "scrubby" and nothing more.  Make a point of not removing
the last light coating of fat/oil.
5.  Unless you burn something or add something too acid and strip the
seasoning, this should produce nearly non-stick performance.
6.  If you do burn something or strip it with an acid liquid (e.g. tomato
sauce),  scrub the *&^% out of it again with lots of steel wool and soap
to get as much carbon off as possible, then  re-season.

> where do you guys find the cast iron pans?
 1. Hardware store.
2. Kitchenware store.
3.  Camping supply store catering to big group and car  style camping (vs
lite/backpack).
4.  Thrift stores and yard sales.
5.  One of the "simple living" web stores (eg. Lohmans).

One of my friends from work had problems with canaries she kept as pets
for her kids dying.  She finally quized the vet. Vet asked if any cooking
with teflon pans was going on near the birds.  Yes, says my friend, birds
were kept right outside the door to the kitchen and overall within 6' of
stove whereon teflon pan was freaquently used.  Fumes from hot teflon are
toxic to the birds says the vet -- either move birds or get rid of
teflon. Friend got rid of teflon pans. No more dead birds!