Couple's Amazing Cracker Barrel Streak To Continue In Cranberry

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, PA - You might think if you’re seen one Cracker Barrel restaurant and country store, you’ve seen them all. That would put you at odds with Ray and Wilma Yoder, who believe you haven’t seen them all until you’ve seen them all - and so they have.

The Yoders, of Goshen, Indiana, will be on hand at Friday’s ribbon-cutting for the new Cranberry Cracker Barrel opening on the site of the former Echo restaurant on Route 228 near Cranberry Woods Drive. The couple, both 81, are coming to town to keep alive a streak of visiting every Cracker Barrel in the country.

If you’re counting at home, the Cranberry stop will be the 648th Cracker Barrel they have patronized in a habit first established four decades ago. Yoder has estimated he has traveled more than five million miles in the offbeat quest, which the Yoders thought they had completed in August when they visited their 645th Cracker Barrel in Portland, Oregon.

But Cracker Barrel keeps opening new eateries and stores, which forces the couple back on the road to maintain a streak the likely never will be topped.

A Patch call to the Yoders’ home Wednesday was not immediately returned. But Ray Yoder told the Tennessean that he began eating at Cracker Barrels when he worked as a driver taking RVs to dealerships or purchasers. When the couple became empty nesters, Wilma began joining him on the road, where they hatched the plan to visit every one of them.

The couple will attend the ribbon-cutting event, which is invitation only. Cracker Barrel will open to the public on Dec. 4 at 6 a.m. The store will be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday 364 days a year.
The store will be closed on Christmas Day.

Photo via Cracker Barrel.