SUCCESS AT LAST! I went on a few other RC Boards, most deal with Aircraft, I stumbled on a post somewhere that suggested Reversing the Throttle Channel Servo Setting in the tx, and then opening the radio and "simply" move the Aleron stick return spring, to the Throttle stick. So, I went ahead and gave that a whirl, and to my relief it worked. I then reset the esc to factory setting again, and went through the esc setup process again, this time everything worked correctly. I then plugged the motor in, and I have forward/ reverse, and the steering and shift settings I had previously set up, work as desired.
So, after stepping away for a day, and just thinking it through, I was able to cool off and "fix" my problm. Now I move forward to paint and possibly designing my own decals using a Testors Decal Dsign Kit I found at Hobby Lobby today, while out with my wife and daughter.