Crazy enough my wife and I had near the same experience. We drove to Kentucky with an alternator and a battery for my sisters Cutlass. It pooped out on here coming home from Florida. The locals wanted way to much to fix it so I got the parts and drove most of the night to pick her and the car up. Took about 2 hrs to make the repairs and we started for home. Got to Scotsburg and the tranny just popped. She called me on her cell and said it was slipping and I saw smoke and then more smoke and then pop....fluid poured out of the pan as all the internals tried to exit through it. I pulled her to the top of the ramp and we left the car to be scouped up by the local junk yard. It had 165,000 on it, Bye bye.