It’s been said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step.
Or, in the case of one New Jersey couple, that journey began with a lunch date at a diner.
Married for more than 39 years, they have taken lunch dates to a whole new level, and it all began with a single photograph taken.
“We were ordering and Karri just said, ‘Let me take your picture.’ I was holding the menu, and she just snapped a picture of me holding the menu,” Jon Ricklin said during an interview with the Today show.
“Half jokingly, I said, ‘It would be really cool if we could take this exact same picture at every diner in the state of New Jersey,’ at the time having no idea how many there were.”
The couple quickly found out that there were more than 400 diners across the state.
Jon poses with diner menus during the diner journey. Karri, his wife, is the “official tour photographer.” Photo courtesy of Karri Ricklin
“Our quest is to eat at every diner in the state of New Jersey. We have more diners in New Jersey than any other state,” Jon said. “We just thought that it would be cool just to drive around the state and sample and eat at every one of them.”
And it’s turning out to be a bigger quest than we probably originally anticipated.”
When asked why pick diners to eat at, Karri said simply, “You gotta eat.”
So far, the couple has managed to visit 212 diners, fitting in the trips between both of their busy schedules.
Jon owns a dry cleaning service, and Karri is a nurse. He said the couple waits for Karri’s schedule for the following month and then picks the days they can both go together.
The pair has a method to their ordering madness, picking foods in an almost logical way.
“It depends on the time of the day. Although breakfast is generally served at diners anytime, (you) kind of have to be in the mood,” Karri said. Her typical go-to meal, she said, are ‘salads’.
Jon said he likes variety, snack plates. A little taste of whatever the diner has to offer.
“The basics, either a burger most of the time wraps, paninis, the souvlaki and gyro platters,” he says. “With our schedules it’s tough sometimes to get to breakfast but you know, what will usually happen is she’ll order her eggs and it’ll come with sausage or bacon. She sort of slides it over to me.”
Karri and Jon Ricklin sit down for a meal at Jersey City’s Miss America Diner — visit No. 198 on their Jersey diner mission. Photo by NJ Advance Media
But for the couple, it’s been all about the people they have met, and the journey they have been sharing together.
“I think talking to some of the waitresses is great … they all have the personality,” Jon said. “They’ll call you ‘hon’ like they did at one we went to last night. I go, ‘We’re at a real diner.’”
The couple posts on their Instagram account a simple photo of Jon holding up the menu of the diner they are visiting.
As Karri said, “It’s a vacation … without the suitcase.”
They said they leave the decision of which diner to visit up to how they feel that day, giving themselves a bit of a thrill of adventure. “It’s a game-time decision,” Jon said.
The visits, Jon said, aren’t about reviewing the food or the places, it’s about visiting with the people who work there, and getting time together as a couple. Sometimes a meal isn’t so good, but it’s not what matters, he said.
“I’ve had a few crappy meals at diners,” he said, but plans to never say where.
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“The owners work hard, and I respect them for it. And I’m not going to be the one to tell them that they suck,” he said.
Though their list is long, they said there isn’t any rush to complete their diner dash. It is, after all, about the path they take to get there.
“I find myself by Wednesday really looking forward (to the trip) … You know, (it’s) the simple things,” he said.
Watch below for a look at the couple and their epic diner quest!
