There are other less obvious places to go in the US apart from Florida and California. I just spent the weekend with a plane rented from Classic Aviation at Addison (ADS) in Dallas. It's a cheap place to get to (AA main hub) and stay, the weather is not as variable as the gulf, and there are loads of airfields all over the central south (TX, OK, LA, AR), both towered and uncontrolled. There are several FBOs at Addison, check on Airnav. Classic were very helpful and well organised and I rented a Warrior for 2 days for $70/hour.