How to make friends in your town?

I’ve been in this town for 7 years now and have only really made acquaintances at work and such. I don’t really meet people anywhere else beyond just exchanging greetings. I’d really love to meet people I can go do things with. Nothing wild, just have lunch/dinner, go see a movie or participate in a local activity, etc. I’m 26, but live a pretty quiet life and am not into drinking/clubbing, so have not gone the bar or club avenue for meeting people.

I’m also a single person that ISN’T looking to date anyone, which seems to make things harder, since the suggestions I’ve gotten the most are either bars or dating sites (I’ve even been told to register for dating sites but state that I’m only looking for friendship, which seems counterproductive to me). I’d much prefer to meet people more organically than online if possible, as I’m just not a fan of online chatting (it comes a lot less natural to me and feels impersonal).

Another suggestion has been to join hobby groups, but sadly, there don’t seem to be many in my town that I know of. I’ve tried looking on MeetUp, but nothing that seems halfway suitable is within a reasonable driving distance. I was driving an hour an a half to the next city to participate in a hobby of mine that isn’t really locally available to me, but can’t really do that anymore due to time and money constraints. Plus, while I have friends that live an hour and a half away, I don’t get to see them as often as I would like and would love to meet someone I could go do something with after work or something.

Has anyone else had this dilemma, and what did you do? It’s ironically so hard to meet people in the social media age, and it’s so frustrating!