I had a wonderful RCIA class with the pastor of my current parish back in fall 2003-spring 2004. Solid, orthodox, steeped in Aquinas, etc. I was an odd case, as I'd been reading lots of the old Catholic classics for serveral years before I crossed the Tiber; as my pastor put it to me, "you were Catholic inside long before you admitted it!"
As I look back, I see that I was in much the same boat. Chesterton was always a favorite writer, esp. the Father Brown stories, I read extensively in the Church Fathers while studying medieval history (and when you read medieval history how CAN you escape the Church?) and the Lives of the Saints. It was just a matter of making it official.