BTW, I meant error 3048.  (Cannot open anymore databases)

Interesting article on your issue. https://community.spiceworks.com/t/how-to-fix-ms-access-cannot-open-any-more-databases-error-3048/1014242
check it out  John

Thanks John, I've actually read similar articles and I've already done all of those things.  The thing is, while the error number is the same, the behavior is not.  Anytime I see error 3048 mentioned online, the complaint is that Access processes remain open in the background even after closing Access and that is not the problem I am having.  

My issue is simply that when my query runs, it consumes DB connections (as it should) but then once the query closes it does not free up all the connections it used.  When the query runs, it uses 12 connections, but when the query closes, it only releases 8, so every time I run the query I lose 4 connections.    I tested a different query and when that query closes it DOES free up all connections that were used, so I'm not sure what's going on.  Thanks for your help, Kyle

I think I may have resolved this.  I noticed that the query had a 3rd table in it that wasn't needed.  None of the fields form that table were used in the query so I have no idea how that table even got in there.  Again, I would think that buy closing the query it would free up those backend Table connections, regardless of whether the table's fields are used in the query or not, but I can confirm that I had 3 different queries with the issue, all 3 had that table in it for some reason and all 3 were fixed as soon as I removed that unneeded table from each of them.  Go figure!  :-)