For about a month now Allison and I have been trying to hit it hard in the fitness area of our lives. There are a couple of benefits of being fit, one of them being you look better. While I know that my Johnson genes have giving me a pretty good looking face, a high metabolism, and a small frame, these only go so far. My love of eating and sitting on the couch contribute much to the demise of my created figure.

Allison has been doing some kickboxing and pilates, while I have been doing push ups and riding my bike. I purchased The Perfect Pushup a little over a month ago as a suggestion from my friend Nick. I love it. It is only 6-8 minutes every other day and it works. I will soon be able to wear my Spartan Uniform with pride while screaming "THIS IS SPARTA!"

I woke up this morning to my normal routine - Life Journal, Rugby, then bike ride. When I got outside for my ride there was some overcast and some remnants of a night of rain. I proceeded to my bike and my ride, expecting to maybe get a little wet. While it did rain, the wetness wasn't the most noticeable effect of the morning ride. This was.



Unfortunately, bikes don't come with mud flaps. Good times though.

Memorial Day Weekend marked our first family camping trip. We had a great time and can't wait to go back. Over the next few days I am going to post on each day of the trip and upload some pics.

Day One
We left Washington on Saturday at 4:30, car loaded, windows down, and no care in the world. Well almost no care... After I had picked up Allie from work the night before, our faithful car almost overheated. We made it home and I just hoped it was a fluke. It wasn't. So I made my call to our family mechanic, Ralph Johnson. He affirmed what I thought might be the problem - the thermostat. So I changed it, finished at 10:30, test drove it and no change. It got hot again. But I drove it some more and it cooled off some and stayed there. So Allison and I decided to take a risk with the car thinking if it got hot we would just take our time. So that was my worry. But it never got hot. We made it all the way to Raccoon Creek State Park with no stops. The park is located off of Highway 18, just west of the Pittsburgh National Airport.

We arrived at camp and noticed that it was very full. Luckily Allison had reserved us a spot a couple of weeks before. She is such a great wife. I would have never thought to do that. When we used to camp it was anywhere we could and nothing but some blankets. But Allie knew what she was doing. We got our site set up with no problems. I gathered some wood for the night and we cooked dinner. BBQ chicken and pineapple. It was delicious.



We cleaned up after dinner, had some smores, and put enough wood on the fire to last us the evening. It was shortly after that that I needed to get something out of our car. I asked Allison if it was locked and she told me that it wasn't. It was. I then asked her where the keys were and she answered "In the car." I said "No worries, we'll just call someone in the morning or something." Allison replied, "The phones are in the car." I thought, of corse they are - oh well we will figure it out tomorrow. Allison was a little upset, but I didn't worry. It will all work out. And it did. A few minutes later a camp ranger drove by. It took me a moment to think to ask him, so I had to chase him down. It must have been a funny sight. Most of the time people are running from the cops - I was running toward them. He was able to help us and we had our keys. I tucked them safely into a nice pocket inside our tent.

We got into our tent with Rugby and called it a night. The ground was hard though. That made for a long night of waking up. It was nice though, out in God's backyard, nothing but my wife and my dog. Good times.