1. I cannot be sure but, I may have been using the "Generic ESP8266 Module" board in th IDE.
2. I connected the sensor to an Uno and it worked first time with the prog from my other post.
3. Reconnected to the Wemos D1 Mini (forgot to mention the board I was working with in the other post) and changed the board in the IDE to Wemos D1 Mini (of course). It worked and now it seems everything is normal.
Did the Uno do something to the BME280 that got it back working or was I using some other esp8266 board in the IDE. Since I was also working with the NodeMCU I might have been using this originally. The mystery deepens.