Mike you need to add at least one (or a couple) of pay-to-write relays to get a reasonable experience. Many people are not reading from non-followers on free relays because of the spam issue, so discoverability is pretty limited. (People will have trouble finding you and seeing your posts.)

You can pick and add any relays on relay.exchange

If you want recommendations, nostr.wine and the various nostr.land relays are good. (Not an all inclusive list of good relays.)