Amtrak to the rescue!!! (yes that is an oxymoron)

It has been a wild and crazy couple of days here in PA. It turns out that our Japanese friend who was staying with us earlier this summer left for Japan yesterday. On Saturday he emailed me wondering if he could stay with us on Monday and Tuesday night while he finished packing and sending all of their stuff which was at our house. We agreed, of course.
Sunday:
He met me at Church and said he had a big favor to ask of me. I thought of a couple of things that he would probably ask me to do. I thought he would ask me to help take boxes for shipping to the post office, or hold any mail that still would come to our house, orsomething along those lines anyway. Well, he then informed me that his plane ticket was for departure from Philadelphia.
Toru: "I just wondering, if it's gonna be ok for you to drive me to Philadelphia airport on Wednesday? Actually, I already ask several others, but they all say no."
Dan's head: "no shit, they all said no?" (pardon my swearing, but I'm just letting you know what was going through my head). "no one want's to drag you rear down to Philly at 4am in the morning, and then drive back to State College, a trip of 8 hours minimum?"
Dan' Mouth: "let me think about it"
Toru: "ok"
Monday:
He came over and packed the entire day, though in the end we both determined that our house really looked like it had been hit by hurricane Toru, and that the next hurricane (I think we are up to T this year) should be aptly names hurricane Toru. Then on Monday night at 10pm, the next conversation takes place.
Toru: "I'm just wondering, do you have any boxes for ship overseas?"
Dan's head "Why am I not surprised?" "Foresight man, foresight!!!"
Dan's mouth: "no, sorry"
Toru: "Can you take me to Wal-Mart to pick up some boxes?"
Dan's head: "let's think about this a little. Why don't you call some of the major grocery stores and figure out if they have any strong boxes, before we run out in the approaching wee hours on a box hunt."
Dan's mouth: "call them and find out if they have any first"
Toru calls.
Toru: "nope"
Dan's mouth: "try some other places"
Well, to make a long story shorter, we eventually determined that the north town Wal-Mart did have some boxes after 11pm. So, at 11pm, we went to Wal-Mart, after a pit stop at another one of his friends houses, where he had some of his other things. After leaving the friends house (about midnight), we went to Wal-Mart, rounded up some boxes and headed for home. At this point, I also gave him the following option: to take him to Harrisburg, PA (about 1 hour and 45 minutes away) to the Amtrak station on Wednesday morning. He agreed, so all was well.
Tuesday:
I arrived home from work at 7pm or so to find that the car was missing. This was only a partial surprise as I had told him he could borrow it earlier in the day to take some boxes to the post office. However, the post office closes at 5:30 here in town, and with the worst traffic scenario, it would take 10 minutes to drive back to our house. He arrived back at 7:30ish (we never found out where he went after, sometimes it hurts the old noggin less if you just don't know).
Dan's head: "I'm really not at all happy that you have most likely just used our car for other purposes without my knowledge."
Dan's mouth: "Were you able to mail you packages?"
Toru: "nope. Well, I went to post office at 5:00, and ah..."
Dan's head: "Dumb ass, what in the world did you wait until 5:00pm for?"
Again, to make a long story shorter, he thought they would be open later, and that he could get it all done before they closed, ie, the mailing part at the post office wouldn't take so long. After listening to him bemoan the fact that the US doesn't have post offices open 24 hours a day, we told him that we could drop of the boxes for him the next day if he gave us the money to mail them, and then he proposed the following: to drop him off at the post office at 7am on Wednesday morning in Harrisburg with all of his boxes, and then he could just take a taxi to the station. The problem with this idea was two fold: #1 it was far more complicated then just letting us do it here in SC, and #2 the train he was going to take left at 7:30 (30 minutes after the post office opens). Still, he was adamant that this must be done this way, because he didn't want to be a bother to us (not like driving to Philly would have been). Rather than expand on the throbbing my head was going through, I obliged thinking it was his grave he was digging, and by golly, one more day of this backwards logic wouldn't kill me.
Wednesday
At 3am we load up the car. At 4am, we take off. At 6am, we stop at the train station to by his ticket. At 6:30, we arrive at the post office and unload all of our boxes, waiting for the doors to open. At this point, Toru realizes that all of the shipping forms that he had filled out the night before, were not in his bag, and most likely still on our table in SC. Ok, I should point out that up to and through this point Jori and I had been praying non-stop that somehow all would be accomplished on Wed, and that he would get on that plane for Japan. Read for multiple intercessions from God. First, we were able to talk with postal employees who were gracious enough to give us more shipping forms to fill out while we waited for the doors to open. Second, there was someone there who spoke fluent Japanese, and could tell Toru exactly how to fill out the forms. Third the doors opened at 7am sharp. Forth it only took about 15 minutes to mail all seven of his boxes. Fifth, the train station was only about 4 blocks away. Sixth, he made his train on time. Seventh: Amtrak strickly forbids taking more than two carry-ons on board, and there is no checked luggage. Toru, had three items. They let him on with all three.
Whew!!! I hadcontinuesg drive back to SC.
Wednesday night, the hurricane continiues. We were driving back from a concert and joking about how we would probably gPittsburgh from him, telling us he was still in the States, in Pittsburg or some place random CIRCUMSTANCESote to all those reading: NEVER, EVER, UNDER ANY CERCUMSTANCES, SHOULD YOU JOKE ABOUT SUCH THINGS!!! :)
When we arrived home, there was a message on our machine from Toru. HPittsburghll in the States. He was in Detroit however, and not Pittsburg. He made it to the airport where his connecting flight to Tokyo was, but the plane to Tokyo had already left without him. I called him back, and found out that his flight from Philly was delayed two hours, and therefore did not make his flight in Detroit. NWA put him up in a hotel for the night, and he was going to fly out on Thursday (Today) at 3:20pm. Hopefully he is now somewhere high in the sky on hiamendto Japan. I think I will sleep very well tonight.
Let me ammend this so as not to confuse you. It was bitter sweet to see him off. We had become good friends this last year, and we will miss him, but the timing issues of the past few days added for a little more stress than I would have prefered.