My wife took the kids in her 2003 Odyssey up to see her mom. Basically a 250 mile shot up I-71, no great big deal. About halfway between Columbus and Akron, she calls and tells me that the car has no power when going up a hill and the CEL and TCS light are illuminated. After a quick discussion we come to an understanding that the transmission is slipping. The transmission that I just had rebuilt a little under 24k miles and 2.5 years ago. The transmission that, when she got back, I was going to do a fluid change on. It's perfectly fine on level ground, but on a big hill it's slipping bad.
After an excruciating phone call, I talk her through pulling off at a gas station and checking the fluid level. She says it smells burnt and that there's some fluid on the case of the transmission. The level is down at the first hole in the dipstick, so I have her go into the store and buy a quart of ATF. The goofballs at the Shell have the audacity to charge her 99 cents for a freaking disposable paper funnel. I hope there's a place in hell reserved for them. Anyway, she puts some amount into the transmission -- no idea how much actually got in there because she said she spilled a bunch, but the level is now maybe near the top hole in the dipstick.
After about 10 miles on the highway, it starts slipping again, so I have her pull off and call her mom to drive the hour south to pick her up and we call AAA to get the car towed. Turns out that the difference between the "classic" and the "plus" is about $60 if you do that initially, but if you call when you actually need the 100 miles of towing, they only charge you $30 to upgrade! So now the wife, kids, and van have all been delivered to my mother-in-law's house.
I was planning on going up there on Saturday evening after a rallycross anyway, so I'll have my tools and the trailer and now I know what I'm doing Sunday. Hooray.
My guess is that some seal blew on the transmission -- I'd guess an axle seal? -- but it only seems to leak when the car is moving. I'm suspecting that the fluid got low which caused the slipping. What I don't know is if the leak is bad enough or that she didn't put enough in when she tried to refill it and a filter and fluid change will patch it back together or if running low on fluid like that caused the transmission to grenade itself and I'm looking at another $1,200 (or whatever it was) rebuild job. The worst part is that the transmissions in those things are such crap -- apparently made by the same origami artists that brought you the ever-so-durable Mazda 323 GTX transmission -- that going to a yard and grabbing a used one is pretty much an exercise in futility since it'll probably be bad or a couple thousand miles from bad anyway.
That goofy van always seems to have something wrong with it. If it's not the made-of-glass transmission, it's the overly-complicated power doors, or the suspension knocking or rattling, or a leaf getting caught in the cabin air filter and making a huge racket, or the gas cap not being torqued down to 500 ft. lbs and throwing the CEL... I realize it's a 10 year old car with 143k on the clock, but I didn't think that was all that much for a Honda.
Okay, rant over, going to bed. Thanks, I feel better.
Unlike the across the Pacific ones. 
I haven't heard of those berkeleying up nearly as much as the Oddy's and 6th gen Accord's.
