Adventures with Unky Sussin

My brother is a traveller. He's the one who definitely found freedom when he obtained his first set of four wheels, then again when he started out on two. As a teenager, he would often disappear for a day, and return with lots of stories and memories. Whether it was a road trip to Northern Arizona, Mexican border towns, or anywhere in between, the open road is his friend. When Caitlyn was born, he rode his motorcycle from Safford to Commerce. It was such an awesome surprize! Now that the kids and I are closer, we've been invited on adventures, too! Here's what we've done so far:

Sunday morning, we went to the catwalk in New Mexico. It's a 1.1 mile hike each way (2.2 miles round trip). The kids did great on the hike. Caleigh surprized me and ended up walking almost the entire distance. And for those of her who know her, yes, she did it in true Caleigh style- in a little pink dress with little pink shoes on her feet. :) Geez, I love that girl! Unky carried her for maybe 1/4 mile, then I carried her for just a little bit at the very end. She was such a trooper! About 3/4 mile in, there is a really nice swimming hole with freezing cold water. We stopped there and swam. It was heavenly! Here's our pic from that adventure:

Yesterday, our adventure was Colassal Cave, near Tucson. I hadn't been to this cave since I was about Collin's age. It was really cool. We did a tour and learned quite a bit about caves and especially what this particular cave was used for in the past. The Hohokam lived in the cave. In the old west days, bandits hid out in it, and during the Great Depression the Civilian Conservation Corps built trails and hand rails to ease public travel within the cave. While inside the cave, we also learned that Unky possesses the uncanny ability to scream like a girl. I was walking and a bat flew right by my head, then flew right into his face- pretty much as close as it could get without touching him- then turned around and flew back past me and up to its roosting place. It was really freaky and neat! The last cave I toured was Las Brujas in Mexico. Colassal is definitely not nearly as large as Brujas, but it's still really impressive. Here's our pic from that adventure:

After we took our tour, we made some smashed pennies for a souvenir. During our smooshing, it started raining. Pretty soon a nice little sprinkle turned into a downpour, complete with hail! After a few minutes, we decided to brave the downpour and run to the car. We ended up DRENCHED! When Cameron got to the car, he told us a piece of hail hit him in the eye! Ouch! We left and realized the washes were running. The first couple were small and had very little water. The first larger one was definitly passable, so we went right on through. The second one, however, was running pretty heavily, so we were stranded! We waited for the rain to stop, and the wash kept running heavier and heavier! Eventually it stopped raining and the wash quit running quite so heavy and we were able to safely pass. Living in Arizona for most of my life, I heard about flash floods all the time, but to actually see one and to witness first hand the power the water possesses was amazing!

On our way home, we took a detour down to Patagonia, then on to Nogales. I didn't realize how beautiful Southern Arizona is! Our step-dad is from Patagonia, so we've always heard how pretty it is, but I imagined it as a desolate wasteland, rather than grass-covered rolling hills. Our great grandfather also travelled around Patagonia/ Southern AZ during the flu and Malaria outbreaks of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and treated people for their illnesses. Although he was not an actual "trained" medical doctor, the people called him "Doc Rhodes" because he had a concoction made of copper solution that he used to treat disease. Something must have worked because he lived to be 95 or 96, and even had a son at age 75. All his sons have lived long lives as well, so we must be a really healthy bunch!

We eventually made our way home and were able to watch the fireworks show out at the fairgrounds. We had GREAT weekend with Unky! Thanks, Unky Sussin!!