Russ,

Programming PIC MCUs in BASIC is pitched towards mikroBasic which is a lot different from either of the MELabs Basics discussed here. It is, however, much less expensive than MELab products.

I would suggest starting with the manual for PICBasic (not PRO) as it will be a little closer to GW Basic and might be easier to follow until you begin to feel you're on solid ground. You can also look through the PIC Basic forum here for code snippets. You can buy PICBasic for about $US100 and some of that can be applied to an upgrade should you opt for the pro version. You can find both manuals at http://www.melabs.com/support/index.htm.

It might also help if you start with a specific, simple project.