Have a road trip, you're in South Florida. Way back in 1979 my wife and I moved to Vero Beach. In spring of 1980 we got into diving at a shop in Ft. Pierce.
I had a fun little Ford Fiesta with a sunroof. We decided to take a US1/AIA road trip from Vero Beach down to Key West. We decided everytime we saw a red dive flag we would check out the shop. We explored back & forth across the ICW hitting dive shops and exploring our new home area. Fun food, cheap hotel rooms and movies at night. Well, we hit 101 dive shops in our 3 day road trip. What a way to see everything, shops, boats, equipment, places to eat and places to dive. You don't have to take 3 days, but maybe a full tank of gas trip, 1/2 tank out and 1/2 tank to return. We saw so many dive packages and great deals.
To be young and full of energy and not a care in the world, had time, a job, time off and some money.
Go have fun.