Spike
Remember when you're hour building that you do not need to stay in one place all the time. I know of people who stayed in one place and did a series of similar runs each day, mostly out into the desert. Sure they got their hours up, but is that experience?
Why not rent the plane and take it away for a month? I did most of the western US in 3 weeks with loads of sightseeing (70 hours flying). Got experience of deserts, mountains, high density altitude, squall line thunderstorm country, cold and wet, VFR on top, snow, canyons, a complete mix of airspace. Others I know did a trip round the whole USA in a bit longer.
I doesn't necessarily cost any more because you can camp a lot of the places (though personally, I prefer hotels with hot tubs
). And if you are in the US, you will easily get courtesy cars or cheap hire cars or just rides from people hanging around the airport.
So I would look for a place that will give you the plane to take away - then it doesn't really matter where you start from.