Welcome Joe,
I think you will enjoy APUG.
The Big Bend area is one of my favorite places to photograph. Been doing it for about 30 years now. I've hauled LF gear over a good portion of the area. Great fun and a fantastic place to photograph. I used to be right down the road from you in Corpus Chisti, but I relocated to New Mexico about 14 months ago. Still about the same distance to Big Bend, though.
Anyway, if y'all are going to put together an outing I'd be interested.
Allen