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November 2, 2007

Goshen man completes eating quest for third time

By ROD ROWE

Goshen resident Ray Yoder thought it would be interesting to come home and tell friends that he had eaten at far-away Cracker Barrel restaurants when he started eating at them while delivering RVs for Coachmen Transportation.

Now he can tell his friends that he has visited and eaten at all 565 of the restaurants in 41 states.

Yoder met with the media Tuesday at the Elkhart Cracker Barrel to explain his accomplishment and talk about his career.

“I started about 20 years ago, then got real aggressive the last 15,” said Yoder, who worked full-time for Coachmen for 271/2 years and the past four years part-time.

“When we saw how many there were,” he thought it would be a challenge to find them all, he explained. “I thought it would be fun to tell my friends, ‘Yes, I ate there.’”

About 10 years ago he reach the goal for the first time, when there were fewer than 500 restaurants.

“That one was in Mount Laurel, N.J.,” he added, and he marked the event by having the manager and groundskeeper sign a map.

For many of the outlets he can name the manager or his favorite waitress. He explained Tuesday that when there was a long wait to eat at a store, he or his wife, Wilma, would make a purchase in the store and they would move along.

“We would spend money in each one,” he pointed out.

“He would drive 50 or 100 miles out of the way just to visit a Cracker Barrel,” explained long-time friend and co-worker Chuck Hernley, Goshen.

Now Yoder’s challenge is to keep up with all the new store openings as the company opens several new outlets each year. He has “caught up” three times in the last 10 years, he explained.

“This is the third time I have caught up,” he said, but the challenge continues with store openings.

“I was caught up from Oct. 17 to 22,” Yoder said. “And then they opened up two more on the 22nd, at Little Rock, Ark., and Sweetwater, Tenn. Then Monday they opened another at Irmo, South Carolina, and plan to open one late this year in Oklahoma.”

He said the Tennessee and South Carolina restaurants will be easy for him to visit as he and his wife of 51 years, Wilma, head for Florida this winter. The couple will spend the winter at Sarasota, where Ray works part-time for the Avis/Budget car rental agency.

His daughter, Doris Copenhaver, uses her computer to keep track of the new restaurants. The colorful Cracker Barrel Web site lists the newest restaurants and those scheduled to open soon, Ray said.

Ray used to use the maps given away at restaurants to keep track of them. Now he looks at the printout from the Web site and if no address is listed, he calls a neighboring restaurant.

“I will call one about 20 or 30 miles away and ask them about the location of the new one I am looking for,” he said.

Ray and Wilma still hit the road when they are in Elkhart County in the summer. Both have driven for Coachmen over the years, returning home on public transportation or one-way car rentals, to save wear and tear on their own car.

“Working for Coachmen has made this possible,” he stressed.

He called the Coachmen business “a smooth operation.” He credited manager Matt Grierson and dispatcher Joe Sheldone for running a good business over the years.

Coachmen loaned two motorhomes to the Yoders who took them to the Elkhart Cracker Barrel for the Tuesday event.

“It thought we’d take photos,” Yoder said.

He explained his project to store manager David Culp and two long-time waitresses, Ellen Craigo and Joyce Dennison, who visited them in the parking lot Tuesday.

Then it was back on the road for the Yoders. Ray plans a bird-hunting trip to South Dakota early this month. They will travel to southern Indiana mid-month, and plan to take RVs to the Louisville RV show the end of November, on their way to south.

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