Everybody who visits the Black Hills does so for different reasons. Some come for the natural beauty, some for the kitschy, man-made attractions. Most people who come to the area have purposely chosen the region as their destination for one reason or another.

That’s not the case, though, with Alex and Luke. They had ZERO say in the matter. You, our readers and friends, told them they had to come. Literally.

You see, Alexandra (Alex) Sabine and Luke Vigeant are exploring the U.S. and Canada one social media interaction at a time. They are a couple of free spirits from near Toronto, Canada that have been on the road for the past six months – guided by nothing more than online votes, Tweets, Facebook comments and other social media suggestions from folks all over North America.

Through an interesting string of events in 2008 and 2009, Alex and Luke decided that they weren’t entirely content with their typical everyday lives of graduate school  and corporate employment. In September 2009, they began hatching the idea of just loading up the car and exploring all of North America – directed only by total strangers through online suggestions.

No planned route. No reservations. No commitments. Just the money they had saved up, a Volkswagen full of supplies and open minds. Part wanderlust fulfillment; part social experiment. So, in the spring of 2010 – they set off on the biggest adventure of their lives.

I had never even heard of these two until three days ago. I got an email from a buddy who had heard about Alex and Luke’s trip and thought I might be interested. I was. Apparently Alex and Luke only had two states in the U.S. left to visit – North Dakota and South Dakota – and they were taking a public vote on their website Alexandluke.com to dictate which state they would hit next and spend a few days in.

The kicker was that only one of “the Dakotas” would really, truly be explored and experienced by Alex and Luke on their journey. The other one would simply be driven through, for the sake of saying they had “been there.” Well, I may be a bit partial, but I happen to think South Dakota is a pretty great place. Shoot – it’s even part of South Dakota Tourism’s logo – “Great Faces, Great Places,” – so I guess it has to be true.

Anyway, North Dakota’s got nothing on South Dakota and those of us that are proud of this state aren’t afraid to toot our own horns. So…here at the travel blog, we rallied the social media troops throughout South Dakota and spread the word on the Black Hills Facebook page and Black Hills Twitter account. When we first appealed to Black Hills Facebook friends on Monday afternoon to go vote for South Dakota, our state was losing to North Dakota by about 100 votes.

A couple hours later, when the voting closed – South Dakota had won by 276 votes! It turned out to be the single largest voter turnout that they had seen in the past six months in any of their state vs. state online votes. So, in true Alex and Luke style – they listened the online voices and headed for South Dakota.

Long story – short – Alex and Luke are now here, touring this great state that we love.

They made it into the eastern side of South Dakota on Wednesday. Checked out Sioux Falls, Mitchell, Huron and a few things in between. Yesterday they made their way west, stopping by Wall Drug and Badlands National Park, and eventually making it into Rapid City late in the afternoon. Today, they will be out and about in the Black Hills touring and seeing the sights.

If you’re in the hills today, keep your eyes peeled for a black Volkswagen, covered in stickers and sporting Canada license plates. That will probably be Alex & Luke – say hi and let them know what a great place South Dakota is. If you’re not in the hills, you can still connect with them via Twitter at @alexandluke, on their Facebook page or on their travel journal blog at AlexandLuke.com.

For those of you who voted to help bring Alex and Luke to South Dakota – thank you! This experiment shows that social media really does have a voice and can do powerful things.