The first Men of Faith breakfast event of 2026 brought out over 150 hungry men early Tuesday morning at The Church at HSB to hear the PBS "Texas Daytripper" Chet Garner. He was a top of his class Baylor Law School graduate who landed the dream job in downtown Austin, but the Texas Daytripper had a dream of his own that led to a "bumpy gravel road less traveled" to all but eight of the 254 counties of Texas. To hear him tell it, he has "eaten his way across Texas." He has even eaten the eyeball of a barbacoa cow head.
"It's better to be at the bottom of a ladder you want to climb than halfway up a ladder you do not want to climb." So, he changed the ladder he was climbing. "Sometimes the right road is not the paved road." Garner shared his "road less traveled" interspersed with his favorite and most meaningful scripture verses learned from childhood.
"I have always wanted to share my love of the out of doors because I have always found such solid comfort and grandeur when out of doors." That love began as a Boy Scout at Philmont in New Mexico (which he says is really Old Texas) where the night sky "has more light than it has darkness" and "think about the universes God has made." "Did you know, Texas has the longest undeveloped barrier island in the world? You can drive for 60 miles and not see a telephone pole, a souvenir shop or a single soul. You are not going to see anything except God's nature. It is incredible to stand on the beach and look both directions and see nothing." "Watching birds. It is a sign you are getting old," he said. But the 45-year old Garner is excited to tell about the largest bird in North America, the Sandhill Crane standing 5 feet tall with an 8 foot wingspan and nests in the marshes of Rockport / Fulton at this time of year.
