I know what you mean. I live in F'ing Ohio, where NOTHING happens in the car scene when compared with California. You can't walk 10 miles in any direction in SoCal without happening upon a custom shop, etc. And here I can travel for an hour and not find a shop that would do a 6spd swap. Not to mention there's meets/shows everywhere all the time out there.
Anyway, shipping isn't that hard. It's just easier not to when you have a huge local market. BUT...that's the way it is. What can I say but move to the west coast. lol