In-N-Out is what their road trips are all about
Central California family takes its appetite for the chain to all 366 locations
To most customers of InN-Out Burger, one drivethru looks pretty much like all the others.
But not to Sam Vonderheide.
“When you go to 20 a day and 20 the next day, you start to notice things,” he said.
Vonderheide is a teacher in Arroyo Grande, a central California city near Pismo Beach. He and his children, 13-year-old Emery and 11-year-old Berkeley, just wrapped up a mission to visit every In-N-Out in the country.
The Irvine-based chain has 366 locations in seven states: California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Oregon and Colorado.
But Vonderheide said the family has made more than 450 visits to In-N-Out in a series of road trips.
The family started in 2020 with the goal of visiting every In-N-Out, which at the time was 358 restaurants. Vonderheide said it was a way of taking a vacation during coronavirus lockdowns. The first stop was Lancaster on July 7.
He drove a used Tesla Model S and had to account for charging locations for the electric car into the itinerary.
The family set up an Instagram page, In-N-Out Road Trip, that built a following. The family began to be recognized by staff when it showed up wearing In-NOut clothes. TV news stations also took notice and sent out reporters.
By the end of the year, the family had visited 284 restaurants. Its latest trip started in early July to tie up loose ends and patronize new InN-Outs, he said.
Also, the family’s mission expanded. It added In-N-Out warehouses to its itinerary and revisited some restaurants to chat with fans.
In the beginning, the family could visit 20 In-NOuts a day in California and Texas, sometimes staying only five minutes. But on this trip, it hit only a handful of restaurants a day and spent about a half hour at each one.
The family paced itself on food, sometimes making small orders of drinks and fries instead of full meals.
This year’s trip included Utah, Colorado, Texas and Arizona.
The family wrapped it up Wednesday with a visit to an In-N-Out along the 10 Freeway in Beaumont, where Sam and Emery split a chocolate shake and some fries. Berkeley got his own vanilla shake. They used a Tesla charging station next to the drive-thru lane.
The family stopped at the location last summer, but it wasn’t open yet. This time, Sam noticed the building had rounded arches over the covered patio.
His parents grew up in Southern California and were fans of the brand, which planted the seeds for the road trip. He prefers early In-N-Outs with two-lane drive-thrus but said all locations gradually are being modernized.
Most of the differences in In-N-Outs are subtle, he said. The family’s Instagram page includes a picture of a “rare” backlit sign in Austin, Texas.
He said Berkeley likes the replica of the original In-NOut in La Puente, which recreates the way the chain began in 1948 but isn’t a functioning restaurant.
After an hour in Beaumont, the family headed for Riverside’s new In-N-Out, which opened this month at 3483 Van Buren Blvd.
Although it was the last restaurant on the family list, it is restaurant No. 365 in the chain, Vonderheide said. Restaurant No. 366 opened a few days later in Lakewood, Colorado. The family visited it Saturday.
The family planned a full meal in Riverside and headed for home, where on Thursday, Vonderheide said it would be eating “probably not In-N-Out.”
“But if anything we’ve probably grown more fond of In-N-Out through this.”