Thanks for sharing... an interesting read. Someday I'll be flying my RV-8 from KPTK to KPAO, and your post gave me a glimpse of the kind of route planning I'll have to do.
My daughter went to CU-Boulder and we made the trek from San Diego to Boulder 3 times. When the wind is blowing over the Rockies stay away! Good choice with those winds. Supplemental O2 is also essential.
KPAO is my closest airport but there are no available hangars there. In fact, Jesse Saint commented that he never saw so may nice airplanes tied down outside there
I have a hangar in KSJC which is not too far away.
The video is processed by YouTube image stabilization (as it was quite turbulent). The interesting artifact of the processing is that the airplane appears to be moving rather than the landscape below.