No help for you Dee, although the first route sounds like the one I have taken in the past. Through the Allegheny valley down route 15? 17? forget which. Beautiful drive through the mountains in the summer, but I might be a bit leery of it if there were snow in the forecast. Some pretty lonely roads if you have any problems.

And I will be looking to see what others suggest as I will be doing the same drive, except all the way back to FL, in a few weeks.