HELP--clutch in NH

[brians@tellink.net]

Sorry if this is a repeat, but my first post doesn't appear to have 
gotten through.

I had my car up north, a little past Mt. Washington, and I started 
getting some rough feedback through the clutch pedal. If I applied any 
pressure at all to the pedal I could feel rough vibrations, though it 
seemed to shift OK. Then, of course, I got stuck in bumper to bumper 
traffic in North Conway. 500 clutch depressions later and it's dead. 
Here's how it progressed. 

After the initial roughness I mentioned, I started paying more attention. 
It seemed to be roughest (and noisiest) when I had the pedal depressed 
fully. There was noticeable noise from the engine compartment, sounded 
like a brake rotor might if the pads were worn and you were coasting to a 
stop. The noise did abate some when I released the pedal with the tranny 
in neutral, but not completely. It also sounded like there was some noise 
when a gear was engaged and the car was moving (although I could only 
notice it if I was going slowly enough in 1st to hear it).

So this continued for a while while the traffic crawled on. We finally 
decided to stop for dinner and let the traffic go in Meredith. As I 
pulled into a stall, the clutch pedal went to the floor and never came 
out again. With the pedal on the floor, the clutch was fully engaged, in 
other words, it was like the pedal wasn't pushed at all. So there I am 2 
hours from home and no clutch on a Sunday. I looked in the engine 
compartment and under the dash and there's no fluid to be seen. I'm 
guessing that the slave cylinder blew, and all the fluid is in the 
flywheel housing on the clutch, etc.?? Would you all guess that the 
intial roughness was the throw-out bearing?? Is there some way this would 
have compounded to the slave cylinder failing?

The real pisser is that I had no real choice but to have it towed to a 
dealer (Lakes Region Audi in Gilford, NH) As a result, If I have them do 
it I'll pay top dollar for labor and for parts. Do any of you have any 
info on them? Are they honest, reliable, etc? 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'd really like to have a general 
idea of what I'm in for when I talk to the service desk tomorrow.

Thanks!
Brian