all suggestions have been excellent.

I fly similar performance. my first landout in the Cherokee resulted
in ripped fabric on the nose. Oh Well. I did two dual XC flights
before I flew solo XC and both of those involved landouts (In A
Lark!!!). I think that that was critical in teaching me a lot about
field selection and all the fun stuff that happens after you have
given up. That is where it truly gets interesting. This eased my
fears and made landing out basically a non event for me. ive done all
my cross countries using pilotage and its worked fine, but I have a
lot of experience instructing in power around the state so im familiar
with the area. the nice thing about a 1-26 is you just cant go fast
enough to get lost really. and of course you should always be
prepared to land out cause you and I fly gliders that go more down
than forward. what part of the country are you in? that is
important. out here in the flatland midwest you can land anywhere in
the spring and fall. its perfect. in many other areas thats just not
the case.

club dynamics can be an interesting factor. my club is fairly neutral
as far as XC flying goes. XC flying in club gliders is allowed as
long as you prep the trailer. its fairly rare that club gliders are
taken on XCs though. however i have found a lot of interest in most
of the local flyers in how well i did on my XC flights. they seem to
fly XC vicariously through me. I think I have motivated a few of them
to spread out a little further, and that is great.

I would recommend, as said above, to fly every flight XC. just keep a
nice landable field below you, be very conservative. dont go for max
speed or distance, just go. and have fun! because it is.

Tony