Benjamin Franklin Farrer

Nancy and I recently went to Texas for Benjamin’s blessing.

We flew into Houston and arrived late on Saturday night. I had reserved a compact rental car and when we picked it up we got a silver Mustang. Nice wheels! We had been driving in the dark through the Texas countryside for about an hour when some guy in a SUV started tailgating me. We were the only cars on the road for miles and I thought I could hear the Dueling Banjos theme from Deliverance in the background. I realized it might “the law” and started to slow down. (I was driving about five mph over the posted speed limit.) Just as I started to slow down the lights started flashing. Well, I’d rather it be a county sheriff than some inbred hillbillies looking for trouble. It turns out it was a very polite TX State Trooper who wanted to let me know my taillights were not working. Since we were driving a rental car he let me off with a warning. I found out later that there was nothing wrong with the taillights—they worked just fine if I turned them on. (Our vehicles’ lights come on automatically and I never even thought about it.)

After another half hour of taillightless driving we arrived in Bryan and found Clarke and Bethany’s apartment. It was great to see them again. Benjamin was sleeping and as much as we wanted to hold him we know you should never wake a sleeping baby.

Their church meetings started at 9:AM the next morning so we got an early start and got over to the church just before the meeting began. Vic and Shauna Mitchell (Bethany’s parents) met us there and Vic and I stood in the circle as Clarke blessed and named Benjamin. Clarke did a good job and Benjamin was awake and alert but remained quiet.

Clarke wanted to drive the Mustang so after the meetings Clarke gave me a nice tour of College Station and the Texas A&M campus while the ladies prepared lunch. A&M is a beautiful school with a huge campus. I guess I should have known, because everything is bigger in Texas. I was very impressed with the tour and the A&M spirit—everywhere we went students were wearing maroon and white A&M clothing.

Nancy stayed the week and spoiled Benjamin while I flew to Phoenix for a National Camp School director’s meeting and a Top-20 Scout executive conference. Nancy and I both flew into the Salt Lake Airport on Friday afternoon and then on up to Idaho Falls and home again home again.