Thanks all for the replies which helped me zone in on the problem. It was the switch inside the shifter. I had fooled with it because the car has the extra "lock out" feature which requires you put your foot on the brake before shifting out of park. The da*(^&$%ed thing doesn't work. I bypassed the problem by rolling upo a pencil thickness piece of duct tape by the lockout override manual switch. It fixed the problem of betting out of park after the car starts, but when I did that, it dislodged the sensor on the other side of the shift mechanism.

So, I'm back on my way to NY tomorrow AM thanks to the brickboard.

Thanks again for getting me back on the road!

Larry