40 years, 44 states and 645 locations: Their quest to visit every Cracker Barrel
Tualatin, Oregon.
That’s where Wilma and Ray Yoder of Goshen, Indiana, walked into a Cracker Barrel on Monday. They ordered a cider float, a special off-menu item employees will make for them anyway, sat in the restaurant’s iconic rocking chairs and made a little history.
The Yoders are the first known people to visit every Cracker Barrel location in the country, a feat that took roughly four decades and five million miles of travel, according to USA Today.
According to People Magazine, the couple first began visiting the country-style chain years ago as part of Ray’s job driving mobile homes and RVs around the country to dealerships.
“We made our living on the highway for about 30 years so it was convenient for us to do this,” Ray told the magazine. “It took the boredom out of the job on the highway.”
But while Ray Yoder now calls the restaurant a “home away from home,” the surprising truth is that he didn’t actually really like the place at first. It was the convenience that kept him coming back, according to USA Today.
“I wasn’t too impressed quite at first,” Yoder admitted. Still, he also said he’s never had a bad experience at a location.
After the couple’s children grew up and moved out, Yoder says he and his wife stayed on the road and continued to eat out at Cracker Barrel, until they eventually decided, almost on a whim, to try to make it to every location.
“Well, everybody does something, usually. So we thought we would do this and it would be fun,” Ray Yoder told KOIN.
According to ABC News, the couple has become brand celebrities as their quest continued, getting invited to cut ribbons at store openings, taking pictures with fans and sharing their favorite meals — potato casserole, meatloaf, blueberry pancakes and those cider floats.
In 2015, however, Wilma Yoder suffered a brain aneurysm at a rest area in Florida during a trip to visit another store. She was rushed to a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, and recovered, but the couple didn’t visit a Cracker Barrel for a year and seriously considered abandoning their quest, per USA Today.
Eventually, however, they returned to the road, and after receiving media attention in July for being one visit away, the couple was given the VIP treatment for their record-setting last visit. The company flew them to Oregon and greeted them with staff and gifts, per KGW.
“It’s just always friendly. Never had a bad experience with the help or even the food for that matter. Just a good place to eat and we like it,” Wilma Yoder told KGW of the final visit. However, the couple has said they don’t plan to stop, as the company is still opening new restaurants.
“I don’t like to call it the last one,” Ray Yoder told People, “because I think we’ll continue to go to some more.”
This story was originally published August 29, 2017 at 9:51 AM with the headline "40 years, 44 states and 645 locations: Their quest to visit every Cracker Barrel."