The car is hard to take out of park (Auto).. Then when you drive about a mile the D (Drive) light on the dash will flash and the Speedometer will not work.

The vehicle speed sensor is not working right, or has a bad connection.

I don't know why it's hard to take out of park. Could be a sticky detent button or a problem with the brake interlock solenoid.

Check the connector(s) to the TCU also...

Where is the tcu and the vss located? Have a picture?

Your VSS is located in the transaxle housing, should be on top, looking down into the engine compartment notice where your passenger's side CV shaft goes into the case, then look inboard and up the case. You can see it from the top but you have to be looking through stuff around it...

The TCU I'm having some kind of mental block and can't picture where it is...someone here will know, or check autozone's repair guides for your year and see if it shows it...

I think I've heard people here say that a bad TCU can play hell will the shifter interlock, so you may just have one problem, the VSS may not be involved...but usually no speedo+no cruise = Bad VSS...have you tried the cruise control?