America has a new celebrity couple, and they just made history for completing their quest to visit all 645 Cracker Barrel locations. 
 
 The Indiana-based duo, Ray and Wilma Yoder, stopped by their final Cracker Barrel store in Portland on Monday, with 644 locations and over five million miles already under their belts. 
 
 “For little farm kids, it’s been very exciting for us,” Ray, 80, told PEOPLE of all the attention on their 40-year mission. “We really have enjoyed it but we didn’t do it to come to this type of ending the way it is now. Everybody has a hobby and that’s what we chose to do. We call it our home away from home and it just fit our plan and schedule very well.” 
 
 Cracker Barrel 
 
 The pair spent their days on the road delivering RVs to dealerships and buyers, and looked forward to their stops at the chain restaurant. “We made our living on the highway for about 30 years so it was convenient for us to do this,” said Ray. “It took the boredom out of the job on the highway.” 
 
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 Before reaching the Portland location, Ray already knew what he was going to order: “A cider float,” he said with a laugh. The drink isn’t actually on the menu, but the employees at Cracker Barrel always whip it up for him, he added. Of all their other favorite menu items, Ray and Wilma especially love the potato casserole or blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup for breakfast time. “It’s a super way to get the day started,” he said. 
 
 Crossing the final location off their list is an event they surely won’t forget. “It’s on the West Coast, a ways away from our house so it means quite a bit,” said Ray. Instead of driving in their RV like they always do though, this last trip is on Cracker Barrel. 
 
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 But rest assured, it won’t be the end of the Yoders’ travels. “I don’t like to call it the last one,” said Ray, “because I think we’ll continue to go to some more.” ||||| TUALATIN, Ore. (KOIN) — Ray Yoder celebrated his 81st birthday Monday morning with his wife Wilma and blueberry pancakes at the Cracker Barrel in Tualatin. 
 
 That’s not necessarily unusual. But what made it special was this was the 645th Cracker Barrel they’ve visited — literally every one in the United States — and they were flown here all-expenses paid by the Cracker Barrel. 
 
 From their 40-acre farm in Goshen, Indiana to the front door of the Tualatin Cracker Barrel, the Yoders arrived early Monday to a celebrity welcome. 
 
 “Well, it’s quite special,” Ray told KOIN 6 News. “These little farm kids aren’t used to all this hype.” 
 
 The Yoders visit all Cracker Barrels View as list View as gallery Open Gallery Ray and Wilma Yoder of Goshen, Indiana visited the Cracker Barrel in Tualatin, completing a decades-long hobby of visiting every Cracker Barrel in the US, August 28, 2017 (KOIN) Ray and Wilma Yoder of Goshen, Indiana visited the Cracker Barrel in Tualatin, completing a decades-long hobby of visiting every Cracker Barrel in the US, August 28, 2017 (KOIN) Ray and Wilma Yoder of Goshen, Indiana visited the Cracker Barrel in Tualatin, completing a decades-long hobby of visiting every Cracker Barrel in the US, August 28, 2017 (KOIN) Ray and Wilma Yoder of Goshen, Indiana visited the Cracker Barrel in Tualatin, completing a decades-long hobby of visiting every Cracker Barrel in the US, August 28, 2017 (KOIN) Ray and Wilma Yoder of Goshen, Indiana visited the Cracker Barrel in Tualatin, completing a decades-long hobby of visiting every Cracker Barrel in the US, August 28, 2017 (KOIN) Ray and Wilma Yoder of Goshen, Indiana visited the Cracker Barrel in Tualatin, completing a decades-long hobby of visiting every Cracker Barrel in the US, August 28, 2017 (KOIN) Ray and Wilma Yoder of Goshen, Indiana visited the Cracker Barrel in Tualatin, completing a decades-long hobby of visiting every Cracker Barrel in the US, August 28, 2017 (KOIN) 
 
 He said he had the idea to eat at every Cracker Barrel back in the 1970s. While their feat seems incredible, Ray has humility about what he and Wilma have done. 
 
 “Well, everybody does something, usually. So we thought we would do this and it would be fun. So, it worked out.” 
 
 Ray put blueberry syrup on his blueberry pancakes, and Wilma added some hash browns to her breakfast of eggs and sausage. They said they plan to be back for the Beaverton store opening next year and then then Jantzen Beach location. 
 
 After this trip, the Yoders will fly to a taping of The Steve Harvey Show and may also appear on Kelly & Ryan. 
 
 The Yoders usually drive or make it part of a vacation, and both said they like to travel. But their trip to the Portland area opened Ray’s eyes to something he didn’t expect. 
 
 “I like you guys here on the West Coast,” he told KOIN 6 News. “You’re alright, actually. Super!” ||||| CLOSE Ray and Wilma Yoder traveled across the country, visiting every Cracker Barrel Old Country Store. Humankind 
 
 Ray and Wilma visited many of the Cracker Barrel stores while traveling the country for their job delivering RVs. Ray Yoder estimates he has driven about 5 million miles on his Cracker Barrel quest. (Photo: Courtesy of The Elkhart Truth) 
 
 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., and Layton, Utah, and Baraboo, Wis. 
 
 Along the way, they stopped at national landmarks like the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty, and they visited local wonders like 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. 
 
 More: Why this couple has visited all but one of America's Cracker Barrels 
 
 More: Cracker Barrel goes trendy to lure Millennials 
 
 "A retiree is just that way," says 80-year-old Ray Yoder. 
 
 But, as they moved ever closer to Cracker Barrel glory — doing something no one had knowingly ever done before — tragedy struck. 
 
 And they almost didn’t make it. 
 
 CLOSE The journey began four decades ago, when Ray Yoder visited a Cracker Barrel in Nashville. Now Ray and his wife, Wilma, have crossed the country together, traveling an estimated 5 million miles, to visit every Cracker Barrel there is. For the record, that number is 645. Jessica Bliss 
 
 Road trip gone wrong 
 
 Ray and Wilma have been married for 60 years. They have four grown children and have lived on the same small farm in Goshen, Ind., nearly all their lives. 
 
 Ray has a grandpa's sense of humor and a warm laugh. He loves being on the road with his wife. 
 
 There was no forewarning one April day two years ago when he almost lost her. 
 
 The couple was on a road trip. They are always on a road trip. How else could they visit every Cracker Barrel in the country? 
 
 Wilma was driving. She started to feel tired and asked Ray to change seats so she could take a break. 
 
 Just as she pulled into a rest area off a Florida interstate, she had a brain aneurysm and collapsed. 
 
 She was rushed to Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville, Fla. 
 
 She survived. She recovered. 
 
 But for more than a year, the Yoders didn’t visit any Cracker Barrels. 
 
 They weren’t sure if they would ever again. 
 
 “She is here by a miracle,” daughter Doris Copenhaver says. 
 
 How it all began 
 
 The Yoders' journey began nearly 40 years ago in Nashville. 
 
 Of course, back then it wasn't their goal to eat at every Cracker Barrel. 
 
 Ray's hometown of Goshen 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. 
 
 Cracker Barrel employees pose for a photo with Ray and Wilma Yoder (seated) at the restaurant in Mt. Airy, N.C. in December 2015. (Photo: Submitted Photo) 
 
 The most convenient spot was a Cracker Barrel on Music Valley Drive. 
 
 And get this. 
 
 "I wasn’t too impressed quite at first," Yoder admits. 
 
 He had to go a couple of times to really fall in love. And, obviously, he did. 
 
 On the road as much as he was for work — so many unfamiliar backways in so many unfamiliar towns — Cracker Barrel, Ray said, always felt comfortable. 
 
 There was one on nearly every roadside, the service was always friendly, and he didn't have to wear a suit and tie. "It fits in with little good-for-nothing farmers," Ray jokes. 
 
 "Let me assure you, it didn’t take long before I knew it was my home away from home." 
 
 'Why don't we go to them all?' 
 
 Ray went it alone at first, while Wilma was home with the kids. 
 
 On the road, he would often order one of his favorites: potato casserole, one pancake with blueberry syrup and extra butter and — if he wasn't feeling too weight conscious, sometimes a couple of bacon slices or a sausage patty. 
 
 "It's a super start for the day," says Yoder. 
 
 As the Yoders children grew older and began to move away, Wilma started joining her husband on the road — and ordering her own Cracker Barrel special. 
 
 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 Yoder has been to every Cracker Barrel in the country – except one. The Indiana man's quest began 40 years ago in Nashville at a Cracker Barrel near the Opryland Hotel. Over the years he has often been accompanied at meals by his wife, Wilma, as they traverse the nation together. Here they are together at theribbon cutting ceremony for a store opening in New Albany, Miss., in May 2017. (Photo: Submitted Photo) 
 
 A big surprise 
 
 Their children knew Mom and Dad traveled a lot, and they knew their parents liked Cracker Barrel. In fact, they often ate there as a family in Elkhart, Ind., not far from home. 
 
 But it wasn't until Ray and Wilma had visited hundreds of Cracker Barrels that the Yoder kids realized what their parents were up to. Their daughter's response? 
 
 "Just kind of amazement," Copenhaver says with a chuckle. "It's just kind of like, 'Whoa, they do have really good food, but you want to go to every one?'" 
 
 The answer, of course, was yes. 
 
 Once she understood, Copenhaver helped track new store openings and printed off all the information her mom and dad needed to get to those, since her parents don't have a computer. 
 
 On the road again 
 
 The Yoders recently returned to the road now that Wilma is fully recovered. These days, Ray does all the driving. 
 
 Long ago, it was RVs. Now, it's the Mercury Marquis or the Ford Fusion. 
 
 Ray estimated 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. 
 
 Beth Quinn, left, (Cracker Barrel's regional vice president of retail) and Ben Noyes, right, (Cracker Barrel's regional vice president of restaurant) pose with Ray and Wilma Yoder at the store opening in Snellville, Ga., opening in March 2017. (Photo: Submitted Photo) 
 
 On each visit, they sit in the familiar rockers, play the iconic peg game, enjoy a cozy fire and order a cider float. It's not on the menu, but the kitchen will normally make it anyway, Ray says. It's especially good with fall apples. 
 
 “Well everybody does something, usually anyway, and we thought we’d do this and it would be fun,” says 
 
 Sometimes Ray Yoder tells the server what they are up to — visiting every Cracker Barrel in the country. 
 
 "I don’t think they believe me," he says, laughing. 
 
 Quest complete 
 
 Copenhaver is happy to see her parents hitting their goal. 
 
 "I think it keeps them going and keeps them active and keeps them healthy," she says. "It's nice that they can do it together." 
 
 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. And they gave them the royal treatment. 
 
 It was a great end to a 40-year, millions-of-miles quest. 
 
 Well, at least until a new store opens, that is. 
 
 Contributing: Tim Gordon, KGW-TV, Portland, Ore. Follow Jessica Bliss on Twitter: @jlbliss 
 
 CLOSE The old-fashioned chain known best for Southern food and trinkets has slowly expanded its retail mix to lure a new, much younger demographic. Karen Kraft, Ben Goad / The Tennessean 
 
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– Ray and Wilma Yoder's visit Monday to a new Cracker Barrel restaurant in Tualatin, Ore., was a special one. For one thing, they were greeted with applause and flowers. That's because the Cracker Barrel visit marked not only Ray's 81st birthday, but the couple's completion of "something no one had knowingly ever done before," per USA Today. It was a trip that carried them 5 million miles over 40 years. The goal: visit every single Cracker Barrel in the US. With No. 645 now under their belts, the couple from Goshen, Ind., say their mission is now complete. "Everybody does something ... and we thought we'd do this and it would be fun," says Ray. "For little farm kids, it's been very exciting for us," he adds, per People. The visits began accidentally in Nashville decades ago, and Ray, who made a living delivering RVs across the country, "wasn't too impressed quite at first," he says, per USA Today. But "it didn't take long before I knew it was my home away from home." The couple eventually decided to visit every Cracker Barrel across 44 states and had been to 600 by 2015. Their mission was then halted when Wilma suffered a brain aneurysm on the road. But after Wilma recovered, the couple's travels resumed, with Cracker Barrel footing the bill to get the couple to their final unvisited location in Tualatin, per KOIN. "I don't like to call it the last one because I think we'll continue to go to some more," Ray tells People. (This couple has been to every county in the lower 48 states.)