Yuku free message boards

Directly across the street from me is the back end of a highschool, and their football field. (I only had to walk across the street to vote this morning, because the h.s. was the voting place - Indiana primary is today.) I live in the downstairs apt of a brown and white house on the corner with my 25 yr-old son. Then at the other end of the block is the expressway, 80/94, which goes right into IL and west of Chicago, etc., and to the east it goes to MI. (It's an overpass section and has sound barriers - that makes the traffic sound like traffic in a distance at night.) My neighborhood also has a bike trail right behind it, well, the end of Hammond's and connecting to Highland. 2 blocks east is a main street US 41 or Indianapolis Boulevard. If I took 41 south a couple hundred miles, I'd come to Brown County and Turkey Run Park, and places where they got all those covered bridges. There's also I-65, it starts on the east of Gary....north is Lake Michigan, when I am at the local beach I can see the Chicago skyline. The clearer days, Sears Tower comes clear into view.
Right south of me is also the Little Calumet River, which is the dividing line between Hammond and Munster. The river is not real big or wide at all but it does flood out now and then, I think it may have been large 300 years ago when the Indians were around. There's the Grand Calumet River right past the State Line of IN/IL, so it must be connected to that one or something.
Last year I was on a plane ride of the area, and I was surprised to see that where I live seems to be part of the spread out of urban life right from the Loop! "Whoa", I said. It is always strange to see your world from a different perspective, isn't it? Looked to me that once one gets past Crown Point, the urban sprawl begins to diminish.