Hopefully you can get a meetup going in Michigan soon. I am looking forward to the Wales meetup.
Steemit needs to move up a level now where the 'population density' of steemians is such that you will know other people locally on it (just like Facebook).
Imagine that in the homesteading community if there were say 20 other steemian homesteaders in the area around about where you live.
That opens up a whole load more possibilities... trading in steem perhaps?