Cubdriver

Rent a 172M-P Skyhawk (~$100/hr) or a Garmin 172SP (~$135/hr). First get your private, instrument and commercial certificates, then go shopping for a speedy ride like an 80's Mooney. Mooneys are really the thing to have once you have mastered the finer points of aircraft control and which comes with the commercial certificate. You are about a year of serious flight training from that point right now if you get on it. I never advise anyone to buy an airplane then learn to fly it unless they have a compelling reason and you do not as far as I know. JUst last week on of my loaded engineering pals said he wants to build an RV-5 in his garage and start from scratch learning to fly it. I talked him out of it. The only compelling reason I ever heard (and I have heard it several times) for buying first then learning to fly, is when the purpose is truly transportation-driven and there is a whopper of a budget to spend. This rarely happens but every now and then a rich person wants an airplane for business and has the money to buy new, and learn to fly it from the beginning. When that happens the advantage is they are pretty good at flying only their airplane which works out well, but he converse is also true they are pretty poor at flying anything else.

Ewfflyer

First off, consider the engine just needing a complete overhaul/replacement, nothing less. Not sure what that'll run, but figure $20k at least to be safe.

Avionics......olddddddddd, but if you're doing nothing but sunday fun flights, you don't need anything but a good COM anyways IMO.

Airframe Well, this could be the best dream or worst nightmare. Depending on where it was stored and if it had a low humidity, absolutely no mice, etc... it could be just as good as it was. Reality says otherwise. A mechanic with tons of Mooney experience would be your best bet to really look into any corrosion and potential of landing gear issues.