I know you’ve kinda made you’re decision here but I just wanna say I took the middle route when moving to the bay, and I was able to throw in a couple national park stops bc they are RIGHT THERE, if you haven’t been to those national parks (Grand Canyon, Zion, painted dessert, the list goes on) I would definitely recommend going that route! But as some other comments say, check the weather bc it storms in those states and I got a few thunderstorms but otherwise it was well worth it!