Introducing Crazy Suzy - October 2016

¡Crazy Suzy!

OK, if you haven’t heard the name Crazy Suzy, you haven’t been keeping up. Along with Debbie Miller-Marschke, she handles the inner workings of our Desert Explorers website, particularly the under-the-hood mechanics that make it work. After some cajoling and some inquiries on how she got her name, she sent this note and a couple of photos to Deb as her introduction to the Desert Explorers. We present: Crazy Suzy!

Hello DE Members,

I finally had a moment to send you more info about my husband Terry and I.

For me, four-wheeling and a love of the outdoors started with our first trip to the dunes at Pismo when I was five. My grandfather owned a Jeep dealership in Santa Barbara, so naturally we had a string of Jeeps during my entire childhood. We traveled to the desert, the dunes, and visited the snow in the Sierras. We went four-wheeling at least once a month, most of the time with the Santa Barbara 4WD Club. Both of my parents were on the board of Cal4Wheel at one time or another, so in 1993-ish I put in a bid to become the editor of the In Gear magazine, a position that I have held ever since.

Growing up in upstate New York, Terry had never been off-road before, unless you count driving in the winter time. We met in the Air Force where we both served (in Texas no less), and moved back to California after our enlistments were over. The first thing we did was buy something with 4WD so that we could continue the family tradition with our own children.

We currently have a modified Jeep Rubicon and spend most of the winter months in Yuma. The rest of the year we travel to various states in our RV, four-wheeling where we can. We both love geocaching, hiking, kayaking, and finding out where dirt roads go.

My moniker started out with a crazy yellow car that I owned. I drove it like a maniac. But then I decided to help with a Camp Jeep event that was being hosted in Buellton. I thought that I could drive my Ford Expedition that I owned at the time to help out at the event. Not so. I HAD to have a JEEP. So I promptly went down to the local Jeep dealership and traded in my crazy yellow car for a crazy yellow Jeep. I’ve been Crazy Suzy ever since.

We are really looking forward to meeting all of you.

Suzy Johnson