Skunk, I tried it out and it worked! Then I removed it back to the old order, and it seems it still worked. So I am not sure what made that happen. I did recently follow Dave instructs on moving the base_url which might be the reason it now works. I am using phstorm and debugging with xdebug. The debugging has stop working. It seems to be stopping at breakpoints but when I try using phpstorm to find the spot, there is no breakpoint there. Very frustrating because as I like to say, I couldn't code 10 lines w/o a debugger. Any who I am am just glad to be unstuck.
proof that an old dog can learn new tricks