USA TODAY International Edition
Couple visit every Cracker Barrel in USA
NASHVILLE For decades, Ray and Wilma Yoder traveled across the country on a unique quest — to visit every Cracker Barrel Old Country Store in the country.
They ate their favorite meals — meatloaf and pancakes and grilled chicken sandwiches — in the most obscure of places: Duncan, S.C.; Layton, Utah; and Baraboo, Wis.
Along the way, they stopped at national landmarks such as the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty, and they visited local wonders such as the Opryland Hotel.
They always kept a folded map on which they circled every Cracker Barrel they visited on the road. By 2015, they had visited more than 600.
“A retiree is just that way,” says Ray Yoder, 80.
The Yoders’ journey began nearly 40 years ago in Nashville. Back then, it wasn’t their goal to eat at every Cracker Barrel.
Ray’s hometown of Goshen, Ind., is a manufacturing center for recreational vehicles and accessories.
His job was to drive RVs across the country, delivering them to dealerships or buyers.
That’s how he found himself in Nashville at the Opryland Hotel setting up an RV show and looking for a place to eat.
The most convenient spot was a Cracker Barrel on Music Valley Drive.
As the Yoders’ children grew older and began to move away, Wilma started joining her husband on the road.
It wasn’t long before Ray had a plan: “I said to my wife, ‘We have been to so many. Why don’t we go to them all?’ ” Wilma agreed.
Ray estimates they have driven nearly 5 million miles.
Monday — as they walked into their very last Cracker Barrel in Tualatin, Ore., outside Portland — they could say they had officially called on all 645 Cracker Barrel locations in 44 states.
Their final trip came courtesy of Cracker Barrel, which is based in Lebanon, Tenn.
The company flew the couple out to Oregon from their home in Indiana for the event. Cracker Barrel gave them the royal treatment.
It was a great end to a 40year, millions-of-miles quest.
Well, at least until a new store opens, that is.