How we finally we got to Burbank (Part 1)

Adventures abound in my life ... also known as a comedy of errors. Take for example the following "adventure" (tortuous experience).
We all know my time management skills aren't the best, but for me I was ahead of schedule. Not so much The Hunk. According to him I was about two days behind schedule. I still thought we could pull it off.

With some help from our Sunday school teacher,  we got the truck fully loaded and were off by 3PM. The plan was that The Teen and The Hunk would do a few swaps, then hit the highway. I was to pick up the freshly groomed (and clean smelling! mostly FURminated) pups and beat them to our new home.
That was the plan.
What actually happened is that some idiot who thought she could beat a turning U-Haul on a narrow road sideswiped the truck about the same time I was paying for the dogs. I got a call from The Teen simply saying they were in an accident but unhurt. No details about where, the damage,  etc.  (I love my son, I love my son, I love my son).
After a few calls and texts I get the location of the accident and make my way out there. Here's some free advice - don't try to hit a 26ft U-Haul at 60mph in anything lighter than another U-Haul. Unless, of course, your objective is to completely total your vehicle. It wasn't pretty.
By the time I got there most of the accident scene had been cleaned up but the truck looked pretty bad. We were advised to try to drive it to our destination. It made it less than a mile before it began smoking and the steam smelled like coolant. Another 1/2 mile and it died. In someone's driveway. Leaking the last of its lifeblood ... I mean transmission fluid.