OUR SKIING ADVENTURE
We continued south on Rte. 385 to Rte. 89 to Rte. 18 and on to Rtes. 18/89 in Wyoming. We proceeded then to Rte. 20W onto I-25 and stopped in Casper, Wyoming for gas. While I was filling the gas tank, Rick grabbed my camera and disappeared. When he came back, he had pictures of mule deer fighting right in someone's side yard, that he took from the side of the road. 
We left the excitement of the deer fight and headed south on Rte 220 to Rte. 287, picking up I-80W near Rawlings, Wyoming. As you may remember, I was worried about starving to death, stuck in a Rocky Mountain pass snowstorm. Fortunately, we crossed Wyoming on the "Great Divide", obviating the need to go through any mountain passes (I still have a lot of power bars left!). Sunset on the Great Divide was incredibly beautiful.
SKIING IN UTAH
Utah is my favorite place to ski. We stayed near Park City, which was an old silver mining town. Downtown Park City was burnt to the ground in 1898, known as the greatest blaze in Utah history. Rebuilt in the early 1900's, Park City experienced "desertion" as silver mining slowed down, then was reborn thanks to the skiing industry. This is downtown today, still looking like the mining town it used to be. There has been a lot of snow this year--you can see how much by comparing the Park City moose on the right (my pix) to the moose when there is no snow!
Rick and I met my sister, Laura, and my brother, Les (you remember him from the boat sinking episode) who were already in Park City. 
Tam, Rick and I first skied here about 18 years ago with Uncle Les and his son, Duke. We went to Snowbird, which has very steep ski runs (unknown to all but Uncle Les at the time). Les took us to the top of the mountain right off the bat. When we got off the gondola, the wind and snow were whipping and there were steep precipices on either side of the narrow path to the first ski bowl. When we looked down the bowl (at least what we could see through the blinding snow), it was steep with moguls. Rick and Duke started to cry that they were going to die; I resignedly started down past a first mogul, fell upside down and slid all the way to the bottom of the bowl. It took us 2 hours to get down to a lodge, all of us (except Les who was an excellent skier) thankful we had no broken bones. We became much better skiers very quickly (survival instinct, I'm sure), but the terror of that first run still remains etched in our memories. (You can tell that Uncle Les is usually part of "family classic" stories!)
Back to the present. I skied at Deer Valley, my favorite area, while the rest went to the Canyons.
I started at Snow Park Lodge (7,200 ft. above sea level) and skied Bald Eagle Mountain (8,400 ft) in the morning. In the afternoon, I went up to Bald Mountain to ski (9,400 ft.) The weather, the scenery and the skiing were wonderful! 
Bald Eagle Mountain
Bald Mountain
Utah scenery from 9,400 ft.
Laura collected bears from each of the ski areas she skied at, so Penny made 4 new friends--Solitude, Deer Valley, Alta and Snowbird.
Skiing Question: If I skied 10 runs down the upper mountain and 12 runs down the lower mountain in a day, how many miles did I ski each day?
ON THE ROAD UPDATE
We left Aunt Betty's and passed Pepin, Wisconsin, the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder. After crossing the frozen Mississippi River between Wisconsin and Minnesota (I-90), we traversed Minnesota, then crossed the unfrozen Missouri River in South Dakota. As we drove west in South Dakota (still on I-90), we passed De Smet, where Wilder's Little House on the Prairie stories took place. As we neared the western part of South Dakota, we could see the Badlands in the distance. We weren't able to take a side tour of the Badlands, since we got caught in a "prairie white-out"--the wind was blowing the snow so much that we experienced close to zero visibility for about 30 miles. We arrived at Rapid City, South Dakota, mentally exhausted and decided to stay for the night. At the hotel, I swam and used the jacuzzi (Penny sat on the very big water slide--you can "bearly" see her--and watched). The next day we set out on a new adventure!
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THE BLACK HILLS AND
MOUNT RUSHMORE
As we left Rapid City, I decided that I definitely want to go back there sometime in the future to find all the statues downtown and also to mine for gold in the beautiful Black Hills. I wondered why they're called the "Black" Hills.
We left Rapid City and headed south on Route 16 through the Black Hills to Mount Rushmore. Rick and I agreed that Mount Rushmore takes your breath away. Here I am in front of the mountain, and then in the picture below, Rick is introducing the man who designed the mountain's sculpture.
As we walked towards the mountain, we went through a plaza called the Avenue of Flags, that contains columns with the flags of all 56 US states and territories. On each column, there is the date that the state entered the union, along with numerical rank of the state in joining. Below are pictures of the avenue and the NYS flag.
Avenue of the Flags
NYS Flag
Penny had a party with the four presidents depicted in the sculpture.
Penny and the Presidents
We left Mt. Rushmore and headed south on Rtes. 16/385 where we passed another mountain with a sculpture in progress that is not as well known as Rushmore. This is a sculpture of Chief Crazy Horse. The first picture below is what the sculpture looks like now, and then directly below it is the model of how it will look when the sculpture is completed.
MY QUESTIONS
Question 1: What is the name of the artist who designed Mt. Rushmore and who are the presidents?
Question 2: How long did it take to complete Mt. Rushmore?, and about how many people worked on it?
Were there any worker deaths?
Question 3: What year was NYS admitted to the union and what was the numerical rank of admittance?
