solo x/c for commercial

Okay, I've decided to start on my commercial, and after looking at
61.129 I have painfully accepted the fact that the 300nm cross country
really needs to be vfr, solo. That means long trips I've done on
instrument flight plans (imc or vmc) won't cut it, and more painfully,
long trips I've done with my girlfriend and climbing buddies (non pilot
passengers) are also not acceptable.

I really have to fly somewhere 250nm away and back again, being sure to
stop somewhere on the way home.

It is so tempting to go into a rant about the pointlessness of this reg
as written, but I'm going to limit myself to just stating that,
generally, I prefer to fly with friends, because it's just more fun (in
the plane and at the destination) and, well, more cost-effective. And
my logbook shows this dearth of truly solo post-private time. I
sometimes go up just to tool around and practice maneuvers on my own,
but I just haven't done much x/c flying that way.

No matter.

I want to make this trip as interesting and educational as possible.
I'm looking for ideas to spice up a several hours in cruise. Games to
practice my dead reckoning?

What do you guys do to make sure every flight is a learning experience?
(aside from "I learned about flying from that" stories, which I'd
prefer to read about rather than re-enact.)

Ideas?

-- dave j
-- jacobowitz73 --at-- yahoo --dot-- com