They try to make it a little out of the way so that people can't be easily pulled back to their school district when issues arise. If it were close you would be tempted to just run into work for a few hours and miss out on the networking and professional development opportunities available.

I hear you, I am not much of a social person. One of my favorite things to do is sit at home with my wife and dog. This group is great though, because it is all tech people. You can totally nerd out and not have to worry about irrelevant small talk :)