Is this normal??

[SignMan59]

Ok I took my car out for its first real drive. Its a 4500 mile totally stock original unit. I noticed when we drove slow thru a small town (stop and go traffic) the temp guage got pretty close to max. It never got there (about 1/8" from) but it made me nervous as heck. Once we got back to say over 45MPH to 65 or so....it came back to what id call normal (needle at half way).

I never got "on it" really or drove like a mad man at all, but when that needle got close to "hot" I was starting to freak.

Anyway....is this normal. or do youi think I have a stubborn T-stat or something??