Thanks to your consistent outreach work, @bigtom13, we've come to Florida, the US state I'm most familiar with, not because I've been there (I'd like to!), but because I've had more of a relationship through the mass-media and, in my case, through literature. I have in mind when I say this the fabulous chronicle Naufragios of Álvar Núñez cabeza de Vaca (who accompanied in his expedition to Pánfilo de Narváez).
It will continue to be an idealized zone, which, now with your data, is more illustrated. I love that your bird is the nightingale (which is why you translate "Mockingbird") or a similar bird, and its flower the orange blossom (aromatic and of delicate colors -white and violet-; here it is called "jasmine").
The southern states of the USA present me with a great curiosity about the relationship that their original populations (and their culture, of course) had with the aboriginal culture of Ancient Mexico, aware that a large part of those lands were "annexed" by the USA.
Also, if I am not mistaken, it is one of the states with the largest black population, and I suppose today with a very high Latin American population.
Greetings.