Put up a UHF Yagi as high as possible and pointed in the direction of the closest repeater and/or base station. I use a yagi here in NW Indiana to reach several repeaters on the north side of Chicago (about 43 airline miles) reliably.
I can't stress this enough... Radio is not something to do (generally speaking). Radio is a tool you integrate into other aspects of your life to either make those other activities easier, more entertaining or safer. If you are buying a radio as a source of entertainment, you are likely going to be very disappointed unless you're a ham and can find people to chat with around the world.
As far as picking a base or a mobile, there are some serious restraints for UHF (GMRS/FRS/70cm Ham/etc.). One is, its a line-of-sight application. If you don't have an antenna that is at least 50 feet higher than the terrain around you... your not talking very far. 100+ would be better. Trees, buildings, hills, etc all cause interference. At ground level, you will get to the horizon line, which is about 3 or 4 miles depending on how tall you are (and what's between you and the other station). As you get higher in elevation, the better your coverage will be. If you're mobile, you can drive to an area where you can get better performance.
Some examples would be, at 1200 feet I got a solid 50 miles on GMRS mobile with 40 watts, mobile to mobile. At the same elevation I can also talk to a repeater in northern Virginia with an antenna at ~980 feet, while I am in central Pennsylvania with my 40 watt mobile. Same 40 watt GMRS mobile, but on the blind side of a commercial building, I experience high static mobile to mobile. Normally I can only talk about 2.5 to 5 miles car to car.
Just some food for thought. I love GMRS and really enjoy having radio comms as part of my life. I wouldn't discourage anyone from getting into the hobby. You just need to be realistic about expectations.
