Hi there,
If not anything else you can often share pictures and test data and stuff like that with other members of forums like this one. If you get a decent camera it makes it pretty nice. Seeing the circuits and stuff makes a big difference than just talking about it, and that means you dont have to travel either.
An old friend of mine and myself considered starting a club in our state, but it would mean some members would have to travel all over the state just to meet up, and that's not easy sometimes with time being valuable and gas prices and the like. The internet is a great place to share ideas and projects like on a site like this very one here.