I do the same thing, but advise a scale: How bad to you want to go to state X, and how much is it worth for you to risk a felony (career ender) to be armed versus going unarmed?
It always boils down to three choices:
1. Go armed and risk arrest, prison, job loss
2. Go unarmed ( I dont like this option, but the overwhelming majority of the US population live their lives this way) and hope lightning doesn't strike
3. Dont go.
Option 3 is usually my response. On the rare occasions travel to a no go state is unavoidable, I select option 2