I finally did it! It is amazing how much of an appreciation I had for looking outside and it was a very satisfying feeling to find the checkpoints. Sure it was a lot of work and many times I had use my plotter to find the distance from that airport, that town etc. but as the flight progressed I could roughly tell how far I was and sure enough it was confirmed when I requested flight following at one point. It was a little bit a challenge with the snow because everything looked so different. Everything went well except one of my passengers really got sick. I was concerned about him for a while and he started to worry me. Then my instructors voice resounded in my head "fly the plane!" so that is what I did. Scared the bajeezeers out of me, a very good experience needless to say! Next time I gotta keep those bags handy, took us a good hour+ to clean the bird up! Yikes. Again thanks for your help, very good responses. I hope to do it again.