I'm up and running!  Part was that SSRS was truly not even configured and part of it was user error.  🙂  I've installed SQL Server for the last 5 years for facilities, but never once not used the option to let the installer package configure SSRS and create the SSRS databases.

I was able to uninstall SSRS and then reinstall it without any errors on that portion.  However, when I ran the Report Server Configuration Manager I still received the error about not finding the report server instance.  Here is where the user error occurred - I noticed on the Server 2012 start menu search screen that there are two "Report Server Configuration Manager" icons.  One I realized after this is for SQL Server 2017 and then for SQL Server 2016.  Each time I tried launching this manager I seemed to have been launching the executable for the 2017 instance.  I wasn't sure how that got there, until I checked the install date for SSMS 17.3 which had the same date stamp as the SQL 2017 that is listed in Programs & Features.  

Once I had the correct Report Server Manager running, it found my instance, and I walked through this guide to setting up the Database creation, URLs for /reports /reportserver and we're in business.  Now I can start testing/practice with some simple SSRS reports in Visual Studio.

Thank you again for the nudges!