Hot take: paying a guy in Denver $150 to drive my truck saved me $400

Back in 2016 I moved my mom from Phoenix to Denver and figured I'd just drive her old Tacoma myself behind the U-Haul, no big deal. Turns out hauling a car trailer on the mountain passes near Flagstaff in July is a whole different animal, and about 40 miles in the U-Haul started overheating and I had to crawl at 35 mph. A guy at a truck stop in Utah overheard me complaining and said he'd drive the Tacoma the rest of the way for $150 plus gas, and I said yes before I could talk myself out of it. He was a retired long haul driver, took the back roads, and beat me to Denver by two hours with zero drama. I learned that splitting the drive when you're moving two vehicles is way easier than trying to tow one behind the other, especially when you're not used to mountain grades. Looking back, that $150 probably kept me from blowing a transmission on a borrowed truck. Has anyone else had good luck hiring a one way driver for a move like that, or did I just get lucky?