FOUND IT!
Out of desperation, even though I checked the . htaccess file, I deleted what was in there and added fresh lines from the instructions on how to create a multi site.
Nope, that’s not it. I already checked that numerous times before and just checked it again.
I wish someone from Wp would chime in here. This is pretty frustrating when you have problems and they ignore you.
The recommended version of php is 5.6 but it says it will work on 5.2+. I just upgraded my hosting which has php5.5.
I can create a sub site but when I view it all formatting and graphics have been removed. If I try to go to the SITE ADMIN section I get a 500 Internal Server Error.