Cracker Barrel is known for making you feel at home with delicious comfort food and friendly staff.
Ray and Wilma Yoder are probably America's amateur experts on Cracker Barrel restaurants. So much so that they have visited 644 of the 645 restaurants and have traveled 5 million miles to do it.
"It's the same good service and great people wherever you go," Ray said.
The Cracker Barrel quest began when Ray was working for Coachman delivering RVs across the country. Later Wilma began joining him on his trips and that's when the Indiana couple began hunting down Cracker Barrel restaurants, a pastime they continued into retirement.
Ray started visiting the restaurants on the road because it felt like a little taste of home for him.
"It has a down-home spirit, and everybody is friendly," he told the Lebanon Democrat.
Stopping at the restaurant helped him to relieve boredom while he was on the road.
Find out on the next page when they plan to visit the last restaurant on their list.
Wilma eventually decided to join him on his trips, and that's when they started to cross Cracker Barrel restaurants off their list, which were typically near an interstate.
"They were always along the main interstate, so you'd have to have your eyes closed to miss them," Ray, 80, told ABC News of the restaurants. "It's nice when you're out there driving that there's a place that can be so much like home."
Now he and Wilma are on this journey together and have become pretty well known to the Cracker Barrel community.
"It's a good feeling. It's something we've followed this long, but it's gained attention in the last 10 years or so," Ray said.
Cracker Barrel's corporate leadership invites them to opening day at new store locations, employees know them and they even receive gift baskets as they cross a new restaurant off of their list.
The 80-year-old couple has 2 simple rules for their visits.
"We always buy something"“ a cup of coffee, candy or something. We don't just pull into the parking lot and leave," they said.
They also leave a tip after their visit.
There is no limit to how many locations they can visit in a given day, having once crossed off 10 locations during a drive along the East Coast.
Their adventure has taken them over 5 million miles across 44 states and their quest is almost complete.
The Yoders recently visited their 644th Cracker Barrel, attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new location in Lavonia, Georgia.
They are hoping to visit the last restaurant on their list in Tualatin, Oregon some time later this year.
"For two old people, we're pretty fast-moving," Ray said. "We're still healthy and we enjoy it, so we keep doing it."
Source: Mental Floss / Lebanon Democrat / NY Post
