I had the same issue about 4 years ago. Mine happened on the hottest day of the year. I did the same thing as you, wished I'd known before hand. But at least I was in my hometown when it went out.
Yeah, I had this problem. Not good in the south. It started off only happening when speeding up or going up hill. It was a work van so it was a mad race to get the van with a good AC.