Believe me, I understand about the regs and knowing them. I am learning them but there are a lot as you know.
What I meant about reading the regs for my long xc was that I wish I had thought more about doing my instrument add-on when I did that long xc in an airplane. Had I thought about it more, I would have looked up the regs and flown it all under the hood.
I'm still new to all of this, I can't possibly know all the regs. Even if I look them up I'm still confused sometimes.