I think transmission, but don't want to believe it

You didn't actually say this, but it sounds like you applied the parking brake and it didn't fully release. Given the age and mileage, that is typically caused by rusty parking brake cables. When they're still just sluggish, you can crawl underneath and flex them to get them to retract under their normal spring tension. If they're really rusty, they'll have to be replaced. The clue to this is if you stop on a slight incline, shift to neutral, and release the regular brakes, the car should creep down hill on its own. If it just sits there, suspect the parking brake cables.

This problem happens much less often if you use the parking brake frequently, but the cables are still going to get rusty over time. Mechanics never use a customer's parking brake because we don't know the history of the vehicle and sticking cables happens much too often. We don't want to be blamed for them sticking on. Don't even think about this being a transmission problem. If you were driving a Ford product, you'd be changing the parking brake cables every one to four years. They have a lot more trouble than most other car brands.