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GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KHGI) - A couple from Virginia is traveling thousands of miles across the country as part of their “Great American Steak Journey.”

The retirees have seen much of the nation and they are making stops at their favorite restaurant along the way.

Judy and Mike McNamara have been happily retired since 2017 and starting in 2003, they have been to 48 states visiting Texas Roadhouses after dining at their first location while visiting family in Tennessee.

They said the comfort food ignited their passion to keep going.

“Obviously it’s the food, that’s why you come, but it’s become as much now about talking to the people. It’s unbelievable how many Texas Roadhouses you’ll go to that you’ll meet someone you’ve seen before or they’ll know the people that worked at the last one that you’ve come from or the one you’re going to, so it’s a huge family they have,” Mike McNamara said.

He spends hours, sometimes days, planning their biannual vacations, ensuring there is a Texas Roadhouse along the way.

On Friday, they arrived in Grand Island, Nebraska, stopping at the 228th Texas Roadhouse they had visited.

There are still about 270 more to go, but they are on pace to visit 480 by the end of the year and 500 by this time next year.

“We may not ever get them all, but we’re trying,” Mike Mcnamara said. “ We’re 71 years old already. Who knows how much longer we are going to be able to spend 5 or 6 hours in the truck?”

With so many visits, you might wonder what their go-to order is.

“It is the sirloin. I’ll switch between the sirloin, the pork chop, the pulled pork and the Chicken Critters. She’s more versatile than I am,” Mike McNamara said.

He said without their Texas Roadhouse travels, life would be “dull.”

“We’d still be traveling, but we wouldn’t be meeting the people that you meet at these Roadhouses, and like I’ve said, that’s become an important part of it too,” he said.

The couple’s next stops are in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.