(Starting at the beginning of the thread and working my way through - Apologies for any duplication...)
I got a call late in the afternoon from one of my pilot buddies asking where the heck I was. He knew I was out flying that day. I told him where I was and he said I better get home soon, a fast moving front is coming in and all the fields behind the front were going IFR. I check the weather--still 7SM and 3000 broken at the home drome. I take off. There is about a 30kt. headwind and low level turbulence. I choose 2300ft as my cruising altitude as that is about as low as I can go while staying above any towers enroute and keeping out of the headwind as much as possible. Pitot heat on.
Fast forwarding to here:
I checked the weather on AWOS while taxiing back to my hangar. 2SM, OVC 1500. I was damn lucky there was no ice, no instrument failure, and the clouds weren't any lower. Field elevation is about 900ft.
That means that the clouds were at 2400 feet. Put the two together, and you had painted yourself into a corner. Can't go up without going into the clouds, can't go down without being at risk of hitting stuff. What's the MOCA along the route? (What was the route?)
About 50 miles out, I run into the wall of clouds. The sun is low on the horizon and the VFR portable GPS is predicting my ETE will be about 10 minutes after sunset. I press on.
What were the other options you were considering at the time? If the answer is "I don't know" or "none" then you need to learn how to develop backup plans both prior to and in flight. Clearly, you had a serious case of get-home-itis here.
The visual horizon is basically gone but I can still see the ground below me for a few miles in every direction but even that visibility is steadily receding. I split my time between my instruments and looking down on the ground below. I'm rock solid at 2300ft. and keeping the sunny side of the airplane up and cussing about the lack of visibility, headwind, and the choppy air. 2300ft. also happens to be the MDA for the instrument approach at my home field.
That also should clue you in that 2300 feet is NOT a place you want to be anywhere other than on that approach.
I know basic VFR minimums are 1 mile, clear of clouds. I was not clear of clouds, rather skimming along in the bottom layer.
Two things: At 2300 feet, you were roughly 1400 AGL, right? Most of the country is Class E above 1200 AGL, so you were likely subject to the 3 mile/500/1000/2000 rule even during the day. At night, you almost certainly were. Remember that VFR minimums are not there to protect you from clouds, they're there to protect you from other airplanes that might come out of those clouds at any instant and slam into you, likely killing all occupants of at least one of the airplanes.
I know I have to get my IR ticket if I'm going to use my plane as a serious traveling machine like I want it to be.
Yes - But don't fall into the trap of thinking that the IR makes the airplane into a transportation solution that always works. Depending on where you live and where you're going and what time of year it is, lots of new issues crop up. There is NO airplane that can always go - Getting the IR does open up a lot of possibilities, but as Ted pointed out it makes the go/no-go decision harder, not easier, and there will still be a lot of times where you can't go.
Thank you for sharing your story here. I'm not going to trash you here, I hope you've already learned your lesson and I don't think being called an idiot on an internet message board helps anyone to learn a lesson. But, as I read your post, I could see a number of links in the accident chain forming. I hope you can see them now too, and have learned something from your experience that will prevent you from making them in the future. Fly safe...
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