Brian Marshall & The ROCK 108 Morning Show - "Jason Halkias Visited 224 Pizza Ranch Locations"

Who used all the Wi-Fi?

Ah, apartment life.

Bad Wi-Fi, mystery laundry piles, and a roommate who says, I'll Venmo you.

Maybe 2027 deserves an upgrade.

Coming August 2027, Four Lakes Properties introduces the brand new Union Station Apartments, furnished in-unit washer and dryer.

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Wait, we have a washer and dryer in the apartment?

These

are top five things you wish you could vote on, but you can't.

Number five, who you can call.

You'll be like, hey baby, I got enough votes.

Can I have your number?

Number four, what they put in the vending machines at work.

You're like raisins, really boss?

Can we vote on this?

Raisins.

Number three, places you can smoke.

I'm looking at you, Long John Silvers.

Is it really gonna hurt the smell in here?

They just opened back up, leave

them alone.

Number two, who gets to drive?

Someone cuts you off, you vote on their plates.

Oh, Jim, you got 30,000 votes.

You need to take the bus.

You're out.

You're voting off the Tribune Island.

And the number one thing you wish you could vote on but you can't is what time it is.

Imagine this, Johnson, you're late for work.

You didn't call in and you parked in my spot.

No boss, we voted.

I'm 15 minutes early.

You don't have enough votes for my number and you're no longer allowed to drive.

By the way, the Venni machine is out of smokes.

Who used all the Wi-Fi?

Ah, apartment life.

Bad Wi-Fi, mystery laundry piles, and a roommate who says, I'll Venmo you.

Maybe 2027 deserves an upgrade.

Coming August 2027, Four Lakes Properties introduces the brand new Union Station Apartments, furnished in-unit washer and dryer.

Internet included a great central downtown location, one to five bedroom apartments, and no double occupancy fees.

That's less adulting and more actually enjoying where you live.

Union Station Apartments, now leasing from Four Lakes Properties.

Wait, we have a washer and dryer in the apartment?

Apartment?

My friends, I saw this story and the completion of an adventure.

We have one Iowa man who has visited 224 locations of the restaurant chain, Pizza Ranch.

I needed to know more, so I reached out to him and we've got him on The Rock 108 Morning Show.

Jason Halkias of Davenport, welcome aboard.

Thank you for having me on.

Where do you start your journey to go around and do 224 Pizza Ranch locations?

It was actually back in 2005 when I visited my very first location in Muscatine.

But at that time, I wasn't exactly thinking of a passion or anything.

And at that time, my hometown location in Bettendorf didn't exist.

And then in 2014, that's where the passion truly started because it was actually in Cedar Rapids.

When I was dating a woman back then who happened to be a big pizza ranch fanatic in her own right, then that caught me motivated to

visit more locations, you know, where our friends were, or if we had a good reason to go there.

That relationship went on for a couple of years, but even though it eventually ended, I just kind of stuck with the passion and then just carried on from there.

So you stayed with the relationship with Pizza Ranch, even though the relationship that led you to Pizza Ranch.

Fizzled out a little bit, as it were.

That's exactly correct.

Jason Halkias of Davenport joining us here on The Rock 108 Morning Show.

Visit at 224 locations of the Pizza Ranch chain.

You mentioned it started in 2014.

Do you always have the same thing when you were going to a pizza ranch or did you mix it up?

Oh yeah, if you're going to eat at that many locations, you have to change it up a little bit.

You moderate yourself.

Do you find that you were, some days you were pizza guy, some days you were salad?

I guess you could say that, yeah.

And then, even though I wasn't thinking about trying to go to all the locations, it wasn't until after I hit 100 locations last year that a friend suggested, if you get to all the locations, then theoretically, you could start visiting grand openings of new ones and still say that you've been to them all.

So when that started, there were days where I was visiting five, six, up to 11 in a day.

So how in the world do you do that?

Well, there's a few different things that a lot of these pizza ranchers have.

Instead of getting a buffet, you can get this thing called cake too, which means you can get a handful of items from the buffet to go.

Other times, other times I would just simply get a drink to go.

That's how you, that's how you moderate yourself.

But you still visited the location, yes?

Yes.

You have to go to the location for it to, and actually get something for it to count in my mind.

When you finally broke the record, when you finally get to the last one, how did you feel?

Well, I guess you could say a little bit of...

bittersweetness as well as relief.

And the reason why I say that is because as I like to tell people, the business will never stop growing.

So this is just the initial quest, try to get to all the active locations.

Now, although I've been to 224, I should emphasize that only 218 of those are still

existing, but there will be new locations opening in the future and I plan to visit those as well.

Do you have Pizza Ranch talking to you about maybe naming a menu item after you and your adventure?

That would be a good idea, but no, I would never count on that.

But I will say this, the main headquarters, the support center as they call it in Orange City, which is where they're based, they actually value me highly as a guest as much as I value them as a business.

So that means a lot to me.

224 locations, 218 now active.

That has to cost a little bit of cash to be able to do that.

How did you fund the trip?

Well, that too was pretty simple.

You know, like up until I hit 100, I think I visited no more than three locations in a day.

That obviously changed.

But there's a simple thing.

There's a simple way behind this.

There's a big, there's obviously a conspiracy theory out there from some people that say, well, Pizza Ranch paid him to do this.

Well of course they didn't do that because I obviously self-funded myself and the way I did that was

You obviously got to manage your money wisely.

And then I have to map out location.

That's how I got to 11 locations in a single day in the central third of Minnesota in September.

Jason Hawkeas of Davenport joining us on the Rock 108 Morning Show completed the adventure of visiting 224 locations of Pizza Ranch.

Jason, is there anything else that after you've done this adventure, this journey that you want to tell P1 Nation?

Well, I will just say this.

If you've got a goal, if you've got something on your mind and you stick to it, you're likely going to succeed in life if you set a goal for yourself.

You know, it doesn't matter if it's visiting 224 pizza ranches or doing anything else that may be a lot more simple.

You know, just be yourself and live your life the best you can.

Jason, thanks again for being on the

show.