Roy,
I've been ready to spring for a 396 too. It occurs to me though that the 396 price has just been reduced by $300 across the board (everyone selling them dropped the price on the same day.)
You know what that means? It means Garmin is going to introduce a new GPS (496?) at Oshkosh in July.
In spite of my burning desire to have a 396 for the Clinton trip, I might just have to wait another 6 weeks to see what Garmin has in store.