Also could you try a one click install droplet of ghost in Digital Ocean.
It indeed was a permission issue related to how I have directories setup. I have everything ln -s between /opt and /var and that caused too many issues.
Such a big shoutout to @vikaspotluri123, for helping this newb out! 
On to the races with much more learning to do and skills to improve. Excited to embark on this journey. Thanks again!
Saw this thread in the weekly summary and noticed you’re still having 502 issues. Just checking through if you need any help RE: Cloudflare setup. I had a heck of a time wrangling it for my blog so I’m happy to provide insight to you where possible.