You are correct. It has to do with the file being open in Dreamweaver when the menu is edited.
I had been testing and I had created the menu object in both the template that was the base for the html file and in the html file it's self. If I clicked on the script tag to edit the menu in the html file the menu would not update correctly.
I removed the second menu and kept only the menu in the template, then edited the template, clicked on the script tag to edit the menu... Joy and salvation ensues.
Thanks for the tips.