I live in Freeman.

It is a rural town of just over 1,000 fine folks located in the southeast corner of the state of South Dakota.

Freeman is a fine place with a teeming main street, two schools, a museum and plenty to do.

But it’s not Disney World.  It’s not Chicago.  It’s not the Rocky Mountains.

Here in our corner of the prairie, we have a matrix for how much friends from other parts of the country love us:

1. If they don’t  visit, they probably still love us.
2. If they do visit, they are crazy about us because no one comes to South Dakota.

If they take pains to travel to tiny Freeman in the southeast corner of South Dakota, they have come to see us – there is nothing else to see.

If you live in New York or California or anywhere else really, well, they may just be stopping by on their vacation to the beach.  There may be mixed motives.

You may just be a free motel. 

But if someone comes to visit us, they aren’t on vacation.

We are their destination.

And we feel loved.

Small town realities.