As a 60 hour private pilot, I had thoroughly planned a
night cross-country solo from Watsonville (WVI) to
Santa Barbara (SBA) in a Warrior.  The weather was clear
until San Louis Obispo, where there was some coastal fog.
As I followed my flight plan from VOR to VOR on this 
moonless night, I decided to divert my route and go
directly from Paso Robles to Santa Barbara instead of
going through the San Louis VOR.  I was on flight
following (fortunately) as I tried to replan my route.
Between the moonless night and trying to divide my
attention, I found it difficult to do anything but 
just keep the plane upright.  
  Eventually I asked for vectors to Santa Barbara and
simply flew them, since I could not keep the airplane
upright and replan my route.  I learned that moonless
nights are as bad as IFR.  I should have flown my
first solo night cross country when there was a full
moon and flown a route I had already flown during the
day.