On Wednesday night a group 6 people left their little town of Ogden, Utah to head out West. Professor Ron Bennett, Sensei Jackie Wilson, Sensei Paul Grigsby, Sempai Don Norman, Sempai Patrick McCurdy, and Sempai Derrick Hampson left the Dojo around 8 pm. With 4 drivers in the car, we planned on heading straight through, making only stops for gas. About 12 hours later we drove into the town of Pasadena, California and drove around town for a bit to get our bearings of this city. After finding the schools of Takayuki Kubota, the original school of Ed Parker and Larry Tatum, we decided to go find a place to sleep for a while. We checked in and luckily they were still serving breakfast. We then heading up to our rooms and caught up on some sleep that we missed while traveling through the night.

About 2 pm we woke up and headed of for Soke Takayuki Kubota's school in Glendale. Sensei Jeremy Slater received a surprise phone call from us telling him we were in the area. He and his girlfriend Bonnie drove up to Glendale to check out the school as well as socialized w/ his former friends. We made arrangements to be at Soke Kubota's Dojo around 4 pm. After meeting with the Grandmaster himself, we watched a few of his classes and became familiar with how his classes are run. Around 7 pm that night we participated in a class which is comparable to our White Dragons intermediate class. They follow the old traditional Japanese way of teaching. We lined up, bowed in, recited the Dojo Kun, warmed up, and then went into some hand and kicking drills. We also went over some sparring drills and learned their way of fighting. It is more of a traditional style compared to our more freestyle sparring. After class was over that night, We all drove down to Larry Kongaika's school, which is the original Ed Parker's School he opened up in 1956. Sensei Jackie Wilson had a meeting to find out what she needed to do in order to be certified under IKKA. A few hours later we were all feeling the effects of not eating so food was the most important thing on our minds. Shihan spotted a Tai-food place earlier, unfortunately it was closed and we ended up eating a Chinese Noodle place instead. After dinner we bid adieu to Sensei Jeremy and his girlfriend with understanding he was going to drive back up on Saturday and hang with us. We went back to our hotel and hit the sack.

We were supposed to drive back to Glendale the next morning, but everyone slept in and didn't wake up in time. The rooms were booked already for Friday night, so we had to go find a place to stay. We actually found a motel up the road and checked in. We started to drive around in the afternoon and was looking for an In and Out burger. We finally found one on the way to meet Bob Wall. The only problem was, is that it was the last day of school for a lot of kids and they all decided to go out to each for lunch. We took one look at that place that decided it was better to come back in a few hours to eat instead of waiting in line for a couple of hours. We headed on down the street and found Bob Wall's office. After talking with him about America in Defense (A.I.D.) I found out that the webmaster for www.worldblackbelt.com was part of his organization so I went and had a little computer talk discussion with him to find out how the website works. After the meeting, we were drawn back to the In and Out burger by our stomaches. If you ever ask Professor Bennett what to eat while in California, that will be his answer every single time. After lunch we all heading up to Soke Tak's school for some more training. Professor Bennett asked about the IKA federation and filled out the paperwork for registration. He also purchased some videos of the basic Go Soku Ryu forms. The first class we attended is modeled after our White Dragon's Advance Class and we reviewed the Shotokan Forms, Go Soku Ryu's style. There are some differences when compared to Gichin Funakoshi's original forms. They told us we were allowed to stay for the next class, which primarily consisted of Brown and Black Belts. We did a lot of drills, combinations, kicking, punching, etc. and we closed up the class with doing some full contact continuous sparring. During this time, Sensei Jackie Wilson and Professor Bennett drove to Pasadena in order to test for her IKKA certification.

After our class was over, we went outside and noticed that they weren't back yet. We called their cell phone and left a sad message about how they didn't love us anymore and were were going to start walking to Pasadena. One of the students, Bill Bowen, was kind enough to give us a ride to the Parker studio. What did we find out when pulling in? They were all in there dancing and having fun while us students were sweating our butts off "doing Karate." We tried to lay the guilt trip with our puppy dog eyes and sad faces on them when arriving, but they were having too much fun to even care. We asked what they were doing and all Sensei Jackie could say was "I did Kenpo". It was time to head back to the motel. What did we find out when arriving? They were smelly and not well kept. We made the decision to drive to Long Beach that night, because that is where Sensei Jeremy lives.

We stayed at the PCH that night and called Jeremy to tell him we were here and came down to meet him. We actually ended up staying at a place which was a few hundred yards from his house. The best thing I heard when checking in is that there is a breakfast buffet. It is kind of hard getting to sleep when all you are thinking about how nice the food is going to be in the morning. After a couple hours of sleep, Don, Patrick, Paul, and myself headed for the dining area. Sensei Jackie wasn't feeling to well so she didn't eat that morning. We loaded our plates with eggs, bacon, sausages, sweet rolls, waffles, toast, bagels, in addition to juice, milk, yogurt, and even cereal. We talked the waiting into giving us a box so we could fill it up with food, which we brought back to the room and surprised Professor Bennett with breakfast in bed.

That afternoon, we checked out and headed down to the shops in Long Beach. We walked around checking out a few places and looked at the items they were selling, then headed off to the beach. Sensei Paul and I heading towards the ocean while Professor Bennett, Jackie, Don, and Patrick went to do more shopping. We met back up after 1 hour and headed off to meet Jeremy. We found another In and Out burger place on the corner and picked up a lunch, then headed off to Hollywood. We drove through UCLA and check out some of the Celebrity Homes next to Sunset Blvd. We also checked out all the stars on the sidewalk in addition to the Hollywood sign up on the hill.

Towards the evening Professor Bennett and Sensei Jackie wasn't feeling too well. We dropped Jeremy and Bonnie off back home, then started heading towards Salt Lake City. Sempai Don drove while everyone else slept. By the time we made it into Las Vegas, we though it would be a good idea to get a room and rest, so we checked in at a Howard Johnson hotel. That Sunday afternoon we left Las Vegas and headed home. Driving out of Las Vegas, some drunk fool was going Southbound on the Northbound freeway and tried to see if he could drive through our Yukon. We didn't give him the chance and a police man was able to pull him over so he could be taken to jail. The rest of the journey home was smooth sailing for us. Sensei Jackie drove all the way from Cedar City to Ogden, so I thought it be best that we go to sleep and not pay attention to the road... :)