Judy and Mike McNamara have always loved traveling. Before they retired, vacations took them to national parks and antique malls.
After retirement, their trips look a little different. And most of them take them to a Texas Roadhouse.
Hundreds of them, in fact.
Since 2003, the couple has stepped through the doors of almost 600 locations across 49 states and Puerto Rico.
On June 22-24, they made stop numbers 575, 576, and, finally, 577 at the Texas Roadhouse in West Des Moines.
The McNamaras were met June 24 with gifts and warm welcomes from the staff. They received a bacon-shaped squeaky dog toy for their rescue dog, Andy, a jar of locally made honey, a bag of popcorn and a bag of cornbread muffin mix.
“They give us a lot of stuff now that’s local. Something to do with maybe one of the colleges that’s close by,” Mike said. “Something we’ve gotten a lot of too is the local honey. A lot of places now usually include something for Andy.”
The couple adopted Andy three years ago when they were visiting a location in Kentucky. He’s been travelling with them since.
At one of the previous locations this year, the staff gave the McNamaras a toy for Andy that hadn’t been wrapped. When they put the dog into their truck afterwards, the normally calm and reserved pugle mix jumped for the toy.
“He doesn’t like treats or peanut butter, but he still likes his squeaky toys,” Judy said.
After 23 years of Texas Roadhouse, ‘The fire is still there’
The couple, who celebrate 55 years of marriage in October, went to their first Texas Roadhouse location in 2003 back home in Virginia. The couple visited Texas Roadhouses as they traveled, and by Judy’s retirement in 2017 they had been to 37 locations.
“I told her in 2018, I said, ‘Let’s make the vacations more centered on the Roadhouse,'” Mike said. “So that’s when we started trying to go to them, and here we are today.”
Mike drives and plans the next locations, while Judy makes the reservations and checks in at the campgrounds and hotels. Despite eight years of the “quest,” as Mike calls it, they’re still motivated to carry on.
“The fire is still there. Whether we gonna get them all or not, who knows?” Mike said.
The Texas Roadhouse experience
Texas Roadhouse has about 700 locations in the U.S. and worldwide, including in South Korea, Taiwan, Qatar and Mexico. Those locations aren’t on the McNamara’s travel plan.
After the couple went to Puerto Rico, Judy told Mike that if they can’t drive to it, “we’re not going anymore.”
“When we flew to Ireland in 2000, you had plenty of room in your seating area,” Mike said. “Nowadays, you don’t.”
The couple also visit Bubba’s 33 and Jaggers franchises, two restaurant chains Texas Roadhouse owns. The quality of food hasn’t changed between the almost 600 Texas Roadhouse locations the couple have visited, they said.
“You know what you’re going to get when you get there,” Mike said.
The couple always sticks to the same few menu items.
At the West Des Moines location, Judy ordered the 6 oz sirloin, a side salad and green beans. Judy said that if her steak isn’t quite cooked to her liking, it doesn’t bother her because then Andy gets to eat it.
Mike ordered a pork chop with A1 sauce, side salad and a baked sweet potato.
“Everywhere we go, I just switch it back and forth. I probably eat sirloin more than anything else,” Mike said.
The McNamara’s journey has gained them attention at each city they visit. They met Texas Roadhouse CEO Gary Morgan, mayors of the cities they’ve traveled to, a wing commander of a Utah Air Force base and the head of a fire department.
“We first saw the fire truck and said, ‘Oh, my gosh. What happened?’ And they were just there just to greet us,” Mike said.
What’s next for the McNamaras?
The McNamaras take about two month-long trips a year to keep visiting Texas Roadhouses. The longer the couple continues on their journey, the more locations will be built.
The McNamaras still try to catch up as they’re being built, but once they’ve gone to every location they can, they said they’ll relax.
“As long as we’re still able to keep going, whether we ever make all of them or not, then we will,” Mike said.
At the end of this trip, they’ll be in Toledo, Ohio, for their 600th stop at the 600th location opened in the U.S.
Veronica Meiss is a news intern for the Des Moines Register. You can contact Meiss at vmeiss@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: They REALLY like Texas Roadhouse. Couple makes 577th stop in Iowa
Reporting by Veronica Meiss, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By Veronica Meiss, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
