Berkeley Johnston's Bio

By: Berkeley Johnston - 3/2003

Jeeping

On the Dusy-Ershim trail, Super Dave says, "Johnston... 31s aren't doing it for you!"

Along with all the practical cars my family has owned, we seem to have settled on Jeeps and Porsches. Not a bad mix. My first driver at 16 was an orange '72 Jeep Wagoneer. You know the color... sweet. My parents commandeered it for their home in Wyoming about a year later, but not before I impressed my girl friend with its Thor winch... I bent her VW bumper trying to pull it across the parking lot. It was a very cool ride. It has been sold, but it can still be seen cruising the streets of Jackson with a broken and wired-in headlight. (Come on, dude. Get that thing fixed!)

More recently, my family decided to begin four-wheeling as a hobby. After failing to convince my parents to sell me their '95 Grand Cherokee, I bought a '90 Cherokee XJ in late 1999. I thought that the Limited ZJ with its luxury and off-road capability provided an irresistible oxymoron. The XJ saved a bundle of cash on the entry cost, though, and left lots of dollars in the budget for upgrades. The budget has since been far exceeded.

Our Cherokee, dubbed Project SkyMiles to honor the increased use of our American Express SkyMiles credit card, has seen some substantial upgrades since bought in its stock condition. There are many more changes in the works, too, so keep your eye on the JeepWire for updates.

I'm a member of the San Luis Obispo 4-Wheelers, The Pack, SoCalXJ, and Cal4Wheel. There are more than enough trail oportunities among these groups to keep us busy, and they're all a great group of people.

Everything else

Driving in Germany at 243 kph. (Yes, it's real.)

As I said our family's Christmas letter, "I'm a guy with more hobbies than a guy with just enough hobbies." Between family and church, cars and other hobbies, work and service organizations, I'm busy.

Wife Jacquie and I are raising three kids, enjoy remodeling our homes (two so far), and really enjoy camping and the outdoors. It's difficult to go backpacking, so we focus our Jeep adventures on both tough trails and excellent camping experiences. The two older kids, 14 and 11, are starting to drive, so they love the trips. The little one loves the Jeep, but says, "no rocks, daddy."

I cut my web publishing teeth on my personal site which evolved as a Boxster Options information center. It's still a popular place in the Boxster community and has made me some good friends. I've also done some rewarding barter work: web editing in exchange for products.

I'm an Amateur Radio operator and usually operate on the Arroyo Grande, CA 146.700 MHz or San Luis Obispo, CA 146.670 repeaters as K6BMJ. I'm active in the San Luis Obispo Sportsmen's Association as the web guy. I even won the club Top Gun contest one year, an event involving pistol, rifle, trap, and Cowboy Action shooting. I've got a buckle and I'm not afraid to wear it!

Following my Agricultural Engineering degree at Cal Poly, I worked for a Civil Engineer for six years drafting and surveying. Since then I've worked in the computer industry as a "Software Guy." Though I've had the same job, the company name has changed from Quest, to Arcada, to Seagate Software, to now VERITAS Software. My job is hard to describe, but it basically involves using my dozen so systems to control a number of custom automated utilities that take raw source code and and create shipping software packages.