After waiting 6 hours for the ceilings to lift enough for me to fly out to North Texas Regional (GYI), was able to do my runup with no issues and was off to GYI.  Ceilings were still a bit low but was going up and was clear when I got to GYI. Met my CFII friend, briefed the flight from GYI to GGG (East Texas). Clearance done,  runup with no issues, and took off.  Climb-out was great, cylinder temps spot on.  Leveled off @ 5000 but we were just below the clouds. Requested higher so I could g