esp8266 esp-01 crashing, restarting over and over
Turns out I was pulling up on the GPIO0 pin, instead of down.  Ensure you have the correct pin-out when flashing.

ESP-01 VCC - 3.3v Serial Adapter
ESP-01 GND - Ground or Minus Serial Adapter
ESP-01 RX - Connect to TX on Serial Adapter
ESP-01 TX - Connect to RX on Serial Adapter
ESP-01 CH_PD - 3.3v Serial Adapter
ESP-01 GPIO0 - Pull low by connecting to ground / minus

There also seems to be a problem with NodeMCU not clearing variables in the Ram, so Ram fills up as you run, and this causes the module to crash upon restarting, over and over.  That is also what was happening.  There is some problem with wifi.sta.getap() that exacerbates this.