Around here, most travel teams play in a pretty broad area. Even if you don't play in out of state tournaments, it is not uncommon to go to tournaments that are 1 - 1 1/2 hours away. Coaches get to see teams from all over. LL boundaries are something like in a 4-5 mile radius. Here in Metro Atlanta in Georgia, there are very few LL opportunities.
Our travel team (16 yr. old), has kids from three towns that are next to each other, but the distance can be as much as 20 miles between where the kids live. Even at 12, my son was on a team that had kids that were from two towns, but went to three different HS's with up to 10 or 12 miles separating them. They all played in the same town rec league when they were younger, but most never would have played together on a LL team due to the distances. Even at 12, or 8 for that matter, teams play in tournaments with kids from many areas. The local travel "league" includes teams from 3 counties, so they play teams from quite a wide geographic range.