I have relatives about an hour northwest of Carmel, in West Lafayette, and I spent some of my childhood in a small Illinois town about an hour west of West Lafayette. On a couple of long car trips i went through Carmel, northwest through Lafayete and West Lafayatte, through Hoopeston, Illionois and down to Champaign, Illinois, where I was born. The Dims have ruined Illinois (taxes and politics), which my nostalgia wishes were not the case.
I go to Lafayette and West Lafayette on occasion. I have a friend who lives up that way, so sometimes we meet there which is about halfway. It’s nice there. Carmel is nice, but it’s just too much for me. I couldn’t live there. I’ve become accustomed to the small town that I live in, with about 12,000 folks (but growing). I don’t miss the bigger city life at all. At all.