I recommend you ride the Smoke for a bit and learn your likes and dislikes.8 miles is about 30 minutes or so on the bike. And 30 miles one-way is about 2 hours. It took me a while to learn that what feels good and comfortable for a half hour is not what I want for a 2-hour ride. So take it out for some longer rides on the weekend. Once you get the experience with the Smoke - rely on your experience it's a better guide than anything posted here.

When the time comes to look at other bikes, I'd ask your LBS for some reason why cyclocross bikes would be uncomfortable over that distance. If you get something like the riding position is just uncomfortable after a while or the geometry is just not made for longer distances, discount anything they say about cyclocross bikes. They might know their stuff on other points but that would just be a load of BS.