The Stick isn't a bad plan, but I could never get used to how they look. I went with a 40 size Great Planes Sportster when faced with the same scenario a few years back. You can set it up to fly like a trainer, or as a pretty nice sport plane!

A thought that had not occurred to me at the time was to go out to the flying field and ask around about any planes that might be available?

I would go ARF while brushing up on the hand eye coordination. That'll give you some time to move towards something you really want to fly. I stepped right into gas at that point....