Welcome, @KK7IGR , I hope you'll like it here long-term, too.
When starting to learn #CW, do yourself the favor and learn somewhat fast CW from the beginning. The letters should come in at 12 wpm with no additional space. This way, you have no chance to get into the terrible habit of THINKING about incoming characters. Better: Subconscious character recognition training from the start! Research "Koch method". Shamless plug: https://gitlab.com/4ham/koch-method-real-words/-/blob/master/README.md is one place describing it.