I did not let off until the end when the nose dropped.

It wont hurt it to run it like that occasionally. Its designed with that in mind.

I shift from 2nd around 20MPH since this is about where it will want to go into 3rd on its own at low throttle.

The cooler lines go from the transmission to the radiator area. If you open the hood, and look straight down on the passenger side between the engine and the fan you will see two small (5/16") hoses. You can disconnect them, point them into a bucket, and have a helper start the car. When it starts spitting fluid, shut it off. Measure the amount of fluid removed, and add that amount back into the transmission. Take it for a drive and double check the fluid level. Adjust if necessary. Done|
If you wanted to change the filter, you would not add fluid after you shut it off and instead drop the transmission pan, change the filter, then refill.
The advantage is you dont get a transmission fluid shower, as long as you are careful. When the transmission is full of fluid, the level is over the top of the pan, so dropping the pan results in a mess. Pumping the fluid out lets you do it cleanly and professionally.

Well then you should have a maintenance guide that gives service recommendations, but to save you from digging it out, there is no recommendation for transmission fluid service till 60K mi... Figure I'll change mine at about 50K mi...

Colt:
Nice, so when the fluid starts spitting out, will it empty out the entire pan of fluid or will there be some left over? It sounds more like an ATF transfusion. I think these transmissions have what I heard to be floating filters. Any idea exactly what it has and what a floating filter is? I forget the meaning of "clean" and "professional". The first time I ever did an oil change, it didn't occur to me that the pan wasn't deep enough and my garage floor was soon flooded with oil :-D, I would never make that mistake again.

GrandMarq:
I noticed in the maintenance guide it called for a change of ATF for the "torqshift transmission". I thought that is what I had but it looks like it's only for heavy duty vehicles. Would be nice to swap that into mine one day haha!

Your tranmission is the same as a police car internally except they have a larger transmission cooler.