Friday...

Ben was feeling a little low about not getting to spend time with friends who were gathering elsewhere today, so we planned lunch with Matt and arranged for him to hang out with Alex this afternoon until Matt was off work.

We headed out on time and were about 15 minutes from town and the front end of the van started shaking, then the brakes locked up all on their own.  I pulled off and called Matt and Katy to let them know we were not going to make it to town and then I called Beth.

This happened last week as well, but Chan was driving and after Beth kept the van for 2 days and they drove it all over the place with no repeat, it was decided that Chan may have been pressing the brake and the gas at the same time.  It's happened before.

I drove it 500 miles in the past week, all over Talledega NF just Wednesday.  No issue.

I had just gotten up to 50 MPH and my foot was no where near the brakes, in the 60 or so seconds it took me to get off the road at a safe spot, the whole front end was engulfed in smoke from the brakes.

I decided I would wait for the brakes to cool so I could drive it back home. 

We sat there a bit and then Ben asked if we could walk down the creek that was nearby, so we did that.

I slipped where Ben is standing and SMACKED my shin, which is now swollen and green.  LOL!!  It had JUST healed from a similar event 4 inches higher.  Don't worry, I put Arnica on it. (Update, one week later, still hurts.  Arnica is useless!)

Tornado damage!

Back at the van an hour later, I cranked it up and the ABS light was off and it was rolling along fine, so I pulled out onto the road and it very quickly-100 yards-shut itself down again.  So, back off the road and now calling AAA.  Last week, even though I had it towed, as soon as the brakes had cooled, it was fine.  So this was crappy.

UPDATE:
It was towed to one place near where I broke down, I did not trust what they told me, so I had it towed all the way to Beth 3 days later.  She replaced the entire braking system-lines, calipers, master cylinder and of course replaced all the fluid, bled the lines.  Over a thousand bucks, so I am hopeful that will fix the problem.