We're actually planning to do both Florida and the RGV this winter. The "try a place and move on" method has worked out for us. We started on the east coast of FL in November, moved to the west coast in December and are now in the panhandle. The only glitch so far was we couldn't find a reasonably priced spot in the Ft Myers area, so we went north of Tampa instead.
The (loose) plan is to follow panhandle to MS then somewhere around Lafayette LA to Galveston, then continue south. We don't plan too far ahead so we can stay flexible.