Mike,
Grats on losing 80 lbs! That's a tremendous accomplishment!
Welcome to the forums. We look forward to hearing about your progress, and helping with questions you may have. Also, I know it would be nice to have an SS gym nearby, there are a lot of resources available on this site. Videos to help learn and perfect your form, and a section for posting videos for feedback on your form. Those can be put to good use to help your progress.
For the deadlift, the bar should start touching your legs, so then you can't pull it "back", because it's already as far back as it can go
I'm sure a little more practice, and you'll have it down, no problem.
Bob