Ellis sensei with his son Richard and Anita Wilson, with David Wilson the ESTA secretary all went to the USA from the 5th of Oct to the 17th of Oct.
The party arrived at Arizona Phoenix airport to a welcome temperature of 100 degrees, then a long drive to Alamogordo in New Mexico, visits to El Paso in Texas and Las Cruces.
There were several aikido classes and a seminar which was very successful, after the seminar all the students were invited back to sensei Rogers home for a barbecue and lots of German beer, many of the students were from the German Luftwaffe air base at Holloman USAF. One of the students Holger Widemann took us on a tour of the air base, which included a tour of the area where we saw the Stealth bomber and we visited the Tornado hanger and had a close inspection of the fighter planes and many other aircraft. Near by is the magnificent White Sands desert where we all walked across the pure white sands dunes, the 229sq mile of desert has to be one of the most amazing sights on earth. We all visited the local Space Museum and the Imax Theatre, we then took a trip to Lincoln the famous cowboy town which is almost as it was in 1887 in the days of Billy the Kid, who was imprisoned in the old court house which is still standing today. We all had a great day at sensei's old friend Tom Macon's ranch up in the wilds of La Luz Canyon, where we handled all kinds of guns from a 38 revolver to a AK47, we also did some knife throwing which is much harder than anyone would think, that was a great day.
After 8 days in Alamorogordo we set off for Santa Fe, this is a very beautiful city, sadly we only spent one night here, the next day we set off for Flagstaff in Arizona our base for our visit to the Grand Canyon. The next we took a flight in a overwing Cessna 7 seater, I had on previous visits driven around the south rim of the Canyon, but to fly over it was a totally different spectacle and the word awesome is so inadequate. When we left the Grand Canyon we called into the ghost town of Jerome an old mining town, after that we drove through Oaktree Canyon to Sodoma and the magnificent Red Rocks, we then had to sadly head back to Phoenix where we spent the last night resting in our motel room with a few drinks and a great deal to talk about.
This is a artical from the local news paper in Alamogordo -
An Alamogordo martial art club received a visit from a legendary figure last week. Professor Henry Ellis, a practitioner of Aikido since 1955, and one of the first people to learn the then-secret martial art in Europe, came to New Mexico to assist in some local projects. Ellis inspected the branch of his school which is located here, and assisted in the development of a new self-paced martial art class designed for regular people. The professor also reviewed local work on a book which will contain a large number of stories, instructions and techniques for today's martial artist. "The visit was a positive vote of confidence for the work our branch is doing in promoting strong, positive Aikido technique," said Dave Rogers, chief instructor of The Hut Combat Arts Club. "We have been working on a book cataloging our technique for a number of years, just as we've been working to make good Aikido technique known in this area. The professor reviewed everything we've done and we came out looking good." The Hut was founded in 1991 as a school who's aim was to teach strong, effective technique. With nearly nine years at this task, the professor suggested an expansion of the group's goals.
"We will begin to offer a new class starting October 21," said Rogers. "While we are currently known as a group of tough, no-nonsense fighters, we have been asked by Sensei Ellis to provide a course for those people who would prefer a self-paced, non-impact, no-pressure environment. We've worked hard over the past week to develop an approach by which we can teach our technique to regular people who are not in the best of shape. With Sensei Ellis' help, I think we've got a good plan worked out."
Those interested in the new low-impact self-defense course being offered by The Hut, can call Dave Rogers at 505-434-1662 or Sun World Gym at 505-439-8233.
More information and pictures will be added when they are finished and ready for viewing.
