What a day! We had a scheduled day off today and we definitely made the most of it. Today we slept in and woke up around 8:30am. We lounged around for a bit before heading out to the annual Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast! Every year the Paris Kiwanis Club puts on an all you can eat pancake breakfast that brings in thousands every year. Ken and I were brought back to our high school days when we were in Key Club. There were Key Clubbers helping out, cleaning tables and serving drinks. Everyone at the breakfast was super-nice and welcoming. After being there for just a little while there was a buzz about us and people were wishing us luck and asking us questions. You could get as many pancakes as you asked for, our first time through Ken asked for 3, I asked for 4 and Andy went for 5. We all put down our first wave of pancakes pretty easily. One of the Kiwanis members came over with two pancakes for Andy. He told him the record was 22 pancakes, which was set back in 1991. Ken and I were hurting pretty bad, and called it a day at 6 each, but we did what we could to support Andy. Andy going for the record created even more buzz around us, as people sitting at our table started giving Andy their support. He put hotcake after hotcake down, but after a pathetic showing of 10 he decided to call it quits. We talked with some more locals and made fun of Andy for having a weak stomach, and got on our way.
After our massive breakfast we cruised around the streets of Paris. We went down to the city square and did some sight seeing. There was a beautiful fountain and some really nice looking older buildings.
We made our way back to the Lewis residence to meet up with Tommy. Andy and I played some more pool, and then made our way to The Chamber of Commerce with Tommy as Ken took a nap. Becky Semple, and Rachel Schory showed us around and told us some history about the city. They hooked us up with some real nice t-shirts, bandannas and pins for us to remember our visit. After our stop there we stopped into the William G. Hayden Museum. We learned some more about the history of Paris and Eastern Texas.
We met back up with Ken and made our way back to The Texas Tumbling and Trampoline Institute. Teresa wanted us to talk to the kids, and we wanted more time on the trampoline so it worked out great. We talked to the kids for a while and answered some questions. After a quick photo-op we were given an exhibition showcase by some of the girls on the team. These girls were absolutely incredible! They all sorts of flips, spins and handsprings, we were very impressed. After the exhibition we started playing with the kids on the trampolines and in the foam pit. We did some foam pit races and I absolutely dominated it. The key was to run, jump, flip/tumble and then make a leap for the wall. We've all agreed that this place has been one of the most fun places we've ever been to. We were all pretty beat after playing with the kids for about an hour or so, we worked out pretty hard for it being an off day. Right before we left a little girl came up to Ken with a secret. She told him "No offense, but my friend and I kinda like you". Ken put her down easy since he has a girlfriend, and the thought of dating a 7 year old girl is very very illegal, also Ken isn't ready for a long distance relationships.
We made it back to the Lewis residence and took in some serious relaxation time. We made it into their grotto-style hot tub for a while, yep we're really roughing it out here. After our hot tub time we got inside and ready for dinner. Tommy grilled up some delicious steaks and Vicky made her famous cheesy potatoes. This was one of our top meals of the trip, we're all very stuffed after the combination of that and the pancake breakfast.
After dinner Tommy and Vicky's daughter Lauren and her friend Mary Beth came over and we've been visiting and discussing the trip. Everyone is really excited about our trip, and love hearing our stories. Andy is currently getting schooled by Tommy in pool, this guy is a pro.
We're going to get back on the road tomorrow and make our way to Honey Grove. Its looking to be around 23 miles from where we stopped on Thursday. Tommy is going to pick us up tomorrow afternoon for one more night in Paris. This city has been very good to us over the last couple days, and we're looking forward to seeing what the rest of Texas has to offer.
Bonjour Y'all!!
-Durkin
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