Getting ready to retire soon and looking for a new hobby. I initially wanted to look into gold prospecting and panning, but Florida isn't an optimal location for that sort of thing. So, now I'm trying to see if detecting might be a fun activity for me to occupy my time. From what I've gleaned so far, it looks like the beaches are the best targets for me here in Florida (unfortunately, I live in Gainesville and am, therefore, relatively far from any beach). I am still trying to learn the rules for detecting (recently learned that state and national parks are almost all off limits ... bummer) and I'm a little disappointed that I don't think I'll even be allowed to use a detector in local parks. But I'm going to browse these forums to see if I can find a way to make the best of my new potential hobby. I'm already a bit discouraged by the limited allowed areas to work, so I'll be interested in discovering how people find fun places to go for their searches.