>I guess I need a UART.[....]
If your PIC can afford to dedicate most of itself to the UART functionality,
then you can even use a 16C54 to handle ASYNC (probably a general theme in
microcontrollers, I guess...)  My little LCD project does "bit-bangin'" UART
RX (but not TX, although this is easier), purely by monitoring bit input
and delays.

http://www.mindspring.com/~tcoonan