Hiya, I just joined too.

My suggestion would be to get the Genki 1 & 2 textbooks. I've found them really useful when learning it (I just started maybe a week ago). It seem's to be very user friendly compared to most textbooks. I've had the same problem as you, and can't seem to find any classes in my area (No college around here has Japanese classes...)

For extra help, I find Ota from York University pretty helpful. He recorded his college classes and posted them here: http://buna.yorku.ca/japanese/eljp/ejlecnotes.html

Hope this helps! Happy studying!