11,000 feet over Kalamazoo

The mighty Warrior is an outstanding IFR platform. In other words, it stays very stable as you fly through the clouds and it doesn’t snap over like a Skyhawk if you get slow.
That being said, this Piper is not designed to climb into the flight levels. As we climbed through 9,000 feet, I provided ATC with the required information that we were climbing like a pig (less than 300 feet per minute). We wallowed up to 11,000 feet.
This was as high as Nick Legenza had ever flown. We also climbed above the South Bend approach control airspace into Chicago Center airspace. It was sky that I had controlled for 17 years. I did not recognize the controller to whom we spoke. I retired in 2019, so this was a new person.
Anyway, back to our story. When flying eastbound in the Midwest, higher altitude winds are often moving from west to east. So the game is to fly high going east and stay low going west.
Flight planning this international trip required precision in that US Customs and Border Protection gives as a narrow window of time to fly across the Canadian border. You pick a time and then you get 15 minutes before to 15 minutes after that time to avoid ruffling any feathers. We were lucky that DuPage Tower was able to get us off quickly when we were ready for takeoff. Chicago Approach control vectored us as close to Midway’s airspace as they could to avoid some rain showers south of the city.
Once we crossed Lake Michigan, the skies were hazy but cloudless. Detroit Approach control zigzagged us over the top of the big airport there as we neared Windsor, Ontario.