Just returned from Seminar Tour with Kuk Sa Nym, Master Sung Jin Suh and Joong Kyo Sa Nym (a visiting student from Yong San University in Korea – he had won a scholarship for the trip from the Kuk Sool Won program [a degree program] in which he is enrolled there). As I have for the past four years now, I joined the tour in Anderson, SC, after seminar at my school, and acted as driver and assistant to Master Sung Jin for the remainder of the tour (only three stops this year, with the usual Ft. Meyers, FL seminar dropped from the schedule this year for some reason).
Master Harmon was also a part of the Seminar Tour, but he peeled off after the Florence seminar to be with his family. Originally from Florence, he was met at the seminar by his brother and sister, and following seminar (and the arrival of Master Harmon’s family from Clear Lake, TX) they were planning a week at the beach.
Florence saw the promotion of Cliff Bailey and Wayne Turner to Sa Bum Nym (4th Degree Black Belt). I followed Master Harmon around, watching carefully to see how he instructed students in dan bong (short stick – the thheme of this year’s seminar) so that I could take over his position in Florida and Louisiana.
We left Florence Monday afternoon to drive to Jacksonville, FL where we stopped for the night. Other than a LOT of construction on I-95 South – resulting in a detour for the last couple of hours of the drive – the trip was uneventful. Arrived in Jacksonville late and tired, however, and pulled into the first motel Kuk Sa Nym spotted. We were in a bad part of town and the motel looked pretty seedy (a real ‘no-tell-motel’ type that you might rent by the hour!) and luckily I was able to convince Kuk Sa Nym to continue on to another part of town to look for something else.
Found a Days Inn after about another fifteen minutes and turned in for the night.
Woke up bright and early (about 6:00 am, which is typical on tour unless we have a particularly long drive ahead – when Ft. Meyers is included, it usually results in a 4:30 am wake-up call from the Nym, both going and coming!) and drove to Ft. Walton Beach, FL for a testing and seminar that afternoon. Stopped for breakfast at Waffle House (previous tours had us looking every morning for a Denny’s, but Master Harmon had convinced Kuk Sa Nym that Waffle House has better coffee) and then lunch immediately on our arrival in FWB at a Korean restaurant (Korea Garden, where we met Jido Kwan Jang Nym Song from Tampa, and Sa Bum Nym Gustavo Toledo from Georgia) before moving on to the seminar site, PSBN Amado Garcia’s school at Eglin Air Force Base.
First was testing with about six students – it was testing that Master Sung Jin Suh (who conducted it) described as ’spicy’ (four direction forms and LOTS of push-ups and squats). Seminar went well, although my first time at the ‘dan bong reins’ with about forty students was a little intimidating at first. After about fifteen minutes, though, everything went smoothly and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Spent the night as guests of PSBN Amado (SUPER nice guy, BTW) before a quick breakfast and the short drive (about 3-4 hours) to New Orleans/Gretna, LA and seminar with Kyo Sa Nym Ryan Tardiff. Met at Korean restaurant – which was closed on Wednesdays – and then lunch at Le Madeleine’s before heading back to the school for a few hours of practice before testing and seminar.
It was over 100 degrees in LA and the air conditioner at KSN Ryan’s school wasn’t working very well (was scheduled to be replaced the following week!), and at about 90 degrees inside, Suhn Im KJN Sung Jin’s testing was short and ‘mild.’ Testing ended a little early, so we went to a nearby IHoP for lunch (for the air conditioning as much as for the food, since we’d only eaten a couple of hour before).
Seminar went really well, and I saw a lot of students from previous years. In Gretna, the same faces tend to show up (along with a lot of new ones, of course) every year – so much so that I feel really at home down there. Two of the guys who got promoted to black belt – Brian and Mortimer (not sure about last names) – had been at seminar every time I was down there (this was my fourth year), and I told them I felt like I had been waiting for their promotion as long as they had!
Following seminar, dinner at a really nice Korean restaurant (Gimchi) and then bed.
The following morning we left around 7:00 am for the final leg – New Orleans to Houston – and after a stop for breakfast just outside of Baton Rouge (Waffle House, of course) it was on to Houston, where we met Master Alex Suh and family and Sa Mo Nym at a Korean restaurant (can’t recall the name, but it’s the one we always go to in Houston) for lunch and then home.
I was picked up at the Kuk Sool Ranch by KJN Vic Quarles, whose son Patrick is always nice enough to give up his room when I’m in town, and was able to spend some time with him (Vic was actually – and literally – the first person I ever met in Kuk Sool Won back in 1976, and we’ve been close friends ever since).
Friday morning got up early (again) for the flight back to Greenville-Spartanburg and home. Fun seminar tour (a little more English would have been nice – with three Koreans and me in the van, I felt like this was the ‘No Subtitles Seminar Tour’), but always good to be back home.
