Great news, I found the culprit! It has nothing to do with the cv axles or the front hubs.
We had to drive through construction that forced us to the very side of the road, within 1 foot of the gutters, and the noise showed up loud and clear. It was bouncing off the gutters back to the car. While my wife drove I leaned as far as I dared out the window to hear distinctly that the noise was coming from the driver's side rear, not the front as we suspected.
I took both back wheels off and their was much more resistance turning hub on the one side than the other.
I would have thought it would have shown up in one of the driving test earlier, but it didn't.
A new hub has been ordered. Seems pretty easy to replace.
One last item, my VIN number decodes to having an ABS anti lock brakes, but I don't! no wires, no controller, no block to control the hydraulics. Just regular breaks. So no need to order a hub with anti lock break sensors built in it.
Thanks rex