Run electric fans all the time?

I've been looking for help on Moparts and the consensus seemed to be that the shroud on the Contour fans is too obstructive. So I removed the fans entirely for a test.

Warmed it up a bit to 160 on the gauge, started driving, temp went to 183 and t-stat opened as expected. Fast drop to 165 as the cold coolant in the radiator hit the engine, then gradually back up to 182. I drove a couple of miles at 30 mph and it stayed on 183.

So I turned around in the driveway (10 sec. max) and while I was doing that, the temp popped up to 190. Started down the road at 30 mph again... and it would not come down below 188 in the next mile.

Made another 3-pt turn down the road, and during that pause of maybe 20 seconds, it rose to 198. Another mile, would not come down below 196, so I drove back to the garage and shut it down! Went up to around 215 due to accumulated engine heat. I put the garage fan on the radiator and it's dropping slowly (the electric fans would normally kick on and off a few times).

The gauge does not seem to be sticky, so I have to assume for now that the temperature readings are real. Does anyone have an idea as to what's going on? I've never seen this "stair-step" with temperatures.