There aren't many game shops around me and the ones that are (45 min away) only run MTG and Boardgame Nights as far as I can tell. I have not even found a place to play X-wing or Netrunner games. I'd love to just cut out the store altogether and find other players and host games at my house. Ideally I'd have friends to introduce to the game but I just moved here to Harrogate 6 months ago and have a hard time making friends out of non players. I'm good at converting players into friends but not the otherway around. Any suggestions?

Search for facebook groups -- and if you don't find any, create one! People just like you in your area have probably made the same search, and will again.

Posting here is good, too. When I do a google search for "High Desert, CA" and "X-wing", the first and only result is one of my posts on the FFG forums, despite the fact that we have a facebook group AND a website.

Hope that helps, and good luck!