Ok so if I, a novice at Arduino, am going to go this route I am going to have to re-write everything.
Perhaps that is someone who can guide me specifically on my code, provided in the original post, so I can possibly work with what I have unless what I have is completed incorrect?
I almost wonder if I should simply incorporate a "power switch", physically, into this unit which is the on / start or reset/off to ease this rather than a state machine?