Well I'm a bit late to this thread - but hope you did indeed drive it and hope you had a good time :-).
If you're still on the fence - dooo eeet!
Going further south would be an option if it got snowy. I drove mine from Columbus, OH to San Francisco in February of 2016 - went southwest to Oklahoma and crossed the rockies at the south end, not seeing any snow until.... near Bakersfield in SoCal! Who would have thought?
It was a good trip, although I wish I had taken more time.
