Depending on where you're from, and how used to snow you are, you probably want to stick to highways as much as possible. This winter will be my first one back since 2000, so I'm not sure what the weather has been like in November for the past few years, but snow is always a possibility then.

Do you know anyone else who will be attending the conference? If you do, perhaps you could see if they would be interested in going on the side trip, and they could drive.