Once in the mountains the C-clip that holds the throttle rod onto the
throttle body came off.  This is the little clip about 1/4" in diameter
that holds the stiff spring onto the throttle.  On an automatic
transmission, this spring is hard to put back on.  The only way I've
been able to do this was by taking the throttle body out.  Anyway, I
lost the clip, so I was stuck with no way to secure the throttle rod to
the throttle body.  No gas, no go.

I used a short segment of extra fuel line around the throttle rod and
secured it with fuel hose clamps.  The 5mm lines fit nicely.  The fix
worked so well that I drove the van around like that for a month until I
got around to finding the proper clip and managed to squeeze the spring
over the throttle rod.

I would be interested in hearing other road-side fixes.  Might come in
handy in the future, especially on dirt road campsites.