Cooling issue, but this time it's to cold...

So... I checked the t-stat and functioning properly, reinstalled it. Started it up and let it warm as far as it will go idling, 180 is as hot as it will get sitting there. I drive it about 50 miles tonight and it runs about 140 to 150 in traffic, on the highway it runs about 135. Now with these temps I have plenty of heat from the heater, but it is 78 degrees today, if it gets into the 40's again I think the engine will run colder again. I did verify that there is no flow until the stat opens, and then plenty of flow. I checked that the radiator and the temp gauge are in fact reading accurately with a meat thermometer in the radiator. The gauge reads almost exactly the same as the meat thermometer in the radiator.
So what I'm gathering here is that the engine runs cold naturally, and if the engine never got to temp I wouldn't be seeing the flow in the radiator when the stat opens. So then it is getting to temp for the thermostat to open, why are my 2 gauges reading so low????