Okay, I see the problem....#$%*&^%#!
I have a button that when clicked links from my new Home Dashboard to my Customers and Contacts screen. The action that does this is a simple Show/Hide Tab Link. This clearly isn't the same thing as actually clicking on a real Tab as the screen loads differently.
I'll have to figure it out, but at this point I think I'm moving toward the solution.
Gotta find the correct action(s) that will just link to a screen so that it's functional.
Sorry about the confusion around something as (seemingly) simple as a button link.