Hi John,
Thanks for responding. I live in the New River Gorge area and can usually find a reason to multi-task a trip down towards the Blacksburg area, so this might work out just fine.
I will get back to you in a few days while I confirm the labor estimate if I were to bring in my own transmission and then thoroughly check out the health of the rest of the car. And then run things through with my wife. I know that she has been unhappy with some cosmetic problems on the vehicle for some time and I suspect that she has been secretly happy with the recent failed transmission. She certainly has been remarkably proactive in assembling craigslist leads on used legacies.
-brian