Great Faces. Great Places

We're on vacation this week in South Dakota, visiting family and friends and having an all around good time. Both my wife and I grew up in South Dakota, and we think it's a great place. However, I get lots of comments from people about South Dakota, mostly negative. So, I'm using this blog to educate people about South Dakota.

First, to dispel a few myths:

• Yes, it is a different state than North Dakota.
• Yes, there is electricity and indoor plumbing.
• No, South Dakotans don't all ride horses and buggies.

Ok, now that we've got the most common misconceptions cleared up, here's some facts about South Dakota.

• Population - 804,194
• Capital - Pierre (pronounced Pier)
• Largest City - Sioux Falls
• Best City - Rapid City (just throwing that in there to tweak a certain reader from Sioux Falls)
• Highest Point - Harney Peak - 7,242 feet
• Lowest Point - Big Stone Lake - 966 feet

South Dakota's State motto is Great Faces. Great Places. So, let's list off some of the Great Faces.

• Bob Barker
• Tom Brokaw
• Sparky Anderson - former Detroit Tigers Manager and baseball hall of famer
• Adam Vinatieri - 4 time Super Bowl Winner
• Cheryl Ladd
• Catherine Bach (a.k.a. Daisy Duke)
• Mike Miller - former NBA Rookie of the Year and 6th Man of the Year
• Jake of jakesrandomramblings.blogspot.com

Those are just a few of the big name South Dakotans. What's even better about South Dakota are the Great Places...here are my favorites:

• Mt. Rushmore
• Deadwood - lots of history and you can play Texas Hold 'em
• Any golf course in the Black Hills...it's just beautiful
• The Black Hills in general...you could spend the whole summer there and never run out of things to do
• Cedar Shore on the Missouri in Chamberlain
• Glacial Lakes area in NE South Dakota
• South Dakota State University in Brookings

So, there's South Dakota in a nutshell. It's a great place to visit, it's a great place to live. I love coming back here as often as we can.