I flew at 2,000 ft. initially because KORF was reporting a 2,600 ft. broken ceiling. Had to stay 500 ft below clouds to be legal. The layer at that level was variable and I had other more important issues such as KORF departure gave me a heading about 50 degrees from the direction I needed to fly. When I cancelled radar service later, I flew above that layer than then went to 6,500 ft to be on top of the higher layer going over the mountains. I flew a lot of 2,500 ft. agl across Indiana to Nebraska to avoid head winds and actually had a tail wind much of the time. This is not expected when flying west. Here in the midwest, I have occasionally flown 1,000 ft. agl to avoid headwinds. You ought to try it some time. By the way, did anyone else have issues with KORF sending them on a heading away from their course? When we went to Elizabeth City, they gave me and other pilots I talked to a heading of 230. Later we got back on course, but as someone said, we were headed to Tennessee for awhile.